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siriusbunbryist · 4 years

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In defence of Abed x Annie.

Thanks to the magic of Netflix, I’ve rewatched Community at age 24, and still found Abed and Annie to have hit the heartstrings as much as I did when I was in high school watching the show for the first time.

But watching the series in its entirety just reinforces my thought that Abed and Annie had so much potential that was wasted, and it’s a shame that the writers planted all these seeds to only decide that perhaps this direction was not worth it / too risky / unfavoured by the audience. But I mean, Alison Brie herself (and I’m assuming Danny Pudi as well) endorsed them! Find here and here.

This was a pairing that with all the crumbs scattered throughout the show (I think we are all aware of these crumbs I speak of), could’ve easily played the “oh we’ve been secretly dating this whole time” trope during the last episode and it would’ve still made sense.

Naturally I did some scoping, and of course unsurprisingly the J.eff x Annie pairing takes the cake, while not a lot of love for Abed x Annie. So here are common points of contentions I see surrounding Abed and Annie, and my rationale on them.

Before I start, a note - I fully respect the J.eff x Annie ship and I don’t intend on starting a ship w.ar/debate. I understand where their support comes from! I just needed to vent because no one else in my social circle watches this show. No hate please.

1. Abed doesn’t see Annie romantically

I think on the contrary it’s been set up rather long ago that Abed at the very least is attracted to Annie.

Exhibit A: “What are you making” in Beginner Pottery

Exhibit B: “Flat B.utt and the one Abed wants to nail” in The Art of Discourse

This video basically explains it! The summary: Annie is Pierce’s favourite, Pierce constantly insults Britta, therefore Britta is flat b.utt.

Exhibit C: Not even trying to hide it in Accounting for Lawyers

But, a romantic interest has to be further built upon finding someone attractive right? There has to be intrigue to their character, such as

Exhibit D: “I can only connect to people through... movies” in English as a Second Language

youtube

It is pretty obvious here that Annie is a rare someone who has successfully broken the impartial screen that Abed filters everything through. Jeff saw it too which is why he said Annie was the ark of the covenant before Abed fell for her disney face. I can only imagine Abed to be quite struck with Annie’s infiltration.

A romantic interest should also share common interests, such as

Exhibit E: “Which makes Annie is my third favourite show” in Paranormal Parentage

I’ve said before that for Abed, a guy who lives life and communicates through comparing it with television and movies, it’s not unthinkable for him to be attracted to someone who genuinely watches his favourite shows and commits to roles during cosplay. And who, besides Troy, would fit this profile? Annie.

And finally, the biggest indicator of it all, we also see how Abed views the Jeff and Annie pairing in everyone’s favourite episode Remedial Chaos Theory. Keeping in mind that the timelines are rendered by Abed, out of all the timelines, J.eff and Annie only kis.sed when Abed left the room for pizza. As well, as conjured in Abed’s head, Evil Jeff and Evil Annie only existed as a couple in the Darkest Timeline. To me at least, it’s arguable that this alludes to Abed’s omniscient “director” standpoint that he may be the obstacle in the Jeff and Annie relationship - pointing towards him perhaps harbouring feelings for Annie.

2. Annie doesn’t see Abed romantically The general consensus on this point is that Annie is only attracted to Abed when he’s playing a character. I rather think that being attracted to someone, and being attracted to someone during role play, aren’t mutually exclusive. Let’s take a look at the different characters that Abed played.

Don Draper: serious, sophisticated, and smooth.

Han Solo: immature, flirty and a smarta.ss.

Batman: mysterious, complex, and brave.

Three different personas, yet Annie responded to all of them. Since the common denominator to all three is that they are played by Abed, I would like to offer a counterpoint that perhaps the attraction to Abed has always been there, it’s just emphasized when Abed plays a character. Who knows, role playing might even be Annie’s ki.nk. After all, during For a Few Paintballs More, it is shown that Annie is disappointed when Abed dropped the Han Solo persona after the battle ended.

Annie also loves big romantic gestures. Who’s better than doing that than Abed? Since the beginning, Abed has already been doing big romantic gestures of varying degrees for Annie. With this, it’s not ridiculous for Annie to see Abed as a romantic potential.

Exhibit F: Staying in a room for 26 hours in Social Psychology

Annie: You sat in a room for twenty-six straight hours. Didn’t that bother you? Abed: Yeah I was livid. Annie: Then why didn’t you leave? Abed: Because you asked me to stay and you said we were friends.

Exhibit G: Rescuing her from “captivity” and inviting her to move in in Remedial Chaos Theory and Studies in Modern Movement (even Troy was surprised at Abed’s invitation)

Exhibit H: Tearing down the Dreamatorium in Studies in Modern Movement

Annie: What about the Dreamatorium? Abed: Oh it's staying. The Dreamatorium is more important than any of us. But you're more important than our bedroom so we put the bunk bed in the blanket fort.

Bonus: Confirmed by Alison Brie

3. The show was about Jeff and Annie

Dan Harmon said that Community’s approach is that anything and any pairing is possible. We see this is as the series started with the classic “player vs smart snarky girl” trope with setting up Jeff and Britta as the main pairing. We also see Troy and Annie as the potential B couple in the show. The writers also threw Pierce and Shirley, Annie and Britta, Dean and Jeff, and even Chang and Britta in for a laugh.

And then the show subverted this all by introducing Jeff and Annie, and made Troy and Britta a couple, showing us that Community is a show that intends on breaking these classic sitcom stereotypes by experimenting with different pairings. Abed and Annie was no exception to this, as the writers often pair them up in different shenanigans and hint at possible grounds to explore*.

A few examples: Han and Leia in For a Few Paintballs More, Hector the Well Endowed and the Elf Maiden in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, spy partners in Modern Espionage.

No doubt that the show dabbled in and out of Jeff and Annie throughout the series. However, to say that Jeff and Annie was the primary pairing in the series would mean overlooking Jeff and Britta. Especially when Jeff and Britta have the whole love-hate dynamic, three(?) marriage close-calls, and emotional snippets such as helping Jeff reunite with his father in Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations.

Anyway, not to discredit Jeff and Annie, but knowing that the show explores the possibility of different pairings**, why write off Abed and Annie?

* Not to mention that the cop pairing in The Science of Illusion was originally written with Abed and Annie in mind! ** We also see a stray Abed and Britta during Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps.

4. Annie is in love with Jeff To keep this short and shipper-goggle free, Annie has said on numerous occasions that she’s in love with the idea of Jeff, not Jeff himself. Specifically this scene in Virtual Systems Analysis:

Abed as Annie: "…We love Jeff…" Annie: "No we don’t, we’re just in love with the idea of being loved. And if we can teach a guy like Jeff to do it, we’ll never be unloved, so we keep running the same scenario over and over hoping for a different result."

And this scene in Conventions of Space and Time:

Annie: All right, I may have been play-acting that we were married, and then the staff thought you were cheating, and I had to save face. Jeff: Do I have to worry about this? Annie: No, I was just daydreaming. I mean, I've married you at least a half a dozen times. And Troy. And Zac Efron.

Not to mention that their conversation in the finale says it all.

Jeff: I don't wanna be fine. I wanna be 25 and heading out into the world. I wanna fall asleep on a beach and be able to walk the next day, or stay up all night on accident. I wanna wear a white t-shirt without looking like I forgot to get dressed.* I want to be terrified of AIDS, I want to have an opinion about those, boring a.ss Marvel movies. And I want those opinions to be of any concern to the people making them. Annie: Well I want to live in the same home for more than a year, order wine without feeling nervous, have a resume full of crazy mistakes instead of crazy lies. I want stories and wisdom, perspective. I wanna have so much behind me I'm not a sl.ave to what's in front of me, especially those flavourless unremarkable Marvel movies.

*Shipper-goggle on: Part of me thinks this is a reference to Abed, whose iconic style almost exclusively comprises T-shirts. What Jeff is saying is that he wishes he is 25 again with his future open before him, someone who compatible with Annie, but here he acknowledges that he isn’t, and lets her go in the end.

5. Abed and Annie wouldn’t work as a couple Another point I see is that Abed and Annie are strictly platonic and are more like brother and sister. On the basis that they have made out a couple times and are attracted to each other, I would disagree with the sibling statement.

Troy, in contrast to Abed, I think actually resembles a more sibling-like relationship with Annie. Although Troy and Annie have the strong friendship of Abed and Annie, when disregarding the high school crush stage of season 1, their storylines never dwelled further down an attraction path, nor was there any specific episode that was dedicated to a deep dive of vulnerabilities and confrontation between them. As a comparison, Troy and Britta had opportunities to explore these setups (Troy admitted to lying about his b.utt stuff story and Troy helped Britta face Blade) - an indication that Troy and Britta were heading into non-platonic territory. Jeff and Britta too, had several opportunities to confront their feelings (up till the very last season), a clear indication of a non-platonic relationship.

For Abed and Annie, what I think pulls their friendship towards actual love interest potential is best pinpointed to Virtual Systems Analysis. Annie’s participation in the Dreamatorium prompted her to not only fully submerge into the way Abed thinks and comprehends his surroundings, but she also got to understand and address Abed’s stubbornness and flaws in a vulnerable way, confronting some of her own flaws as well.

Abed as Shirley: Your hospital school, young lady, is a simulation being run through a filter of other people's needs. Abed's been filtered out because nobody needs him. Annie: I need him!

And to point out this little tidbit in VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing,

Annie: That's why Abed is like a brother to me. You guys are so alike. Abed: I can't accept that based on one time machine story.

This whole episode, instead of establishing Abed is like Annie’s brother, I would argue is rather doing the opposite. Abed and Annie’s hyper antics in the episode were basically matched by Anthony and Rachel’s blatant indifference and confusion. For lots of Abed and Annie supporters, this episode was a major setback. But I think it instead highlights how in-sync they are with each other, which is a good thing.

Another point, despite Annie trying to prove otherwise, Abed and Anthony had different vibes, and each shared different dynamics with Annie. And as Anthony pointed out in the end, who were Abed and Annie trying to replace in the apartment? Troy. The person who they are trying to fill is Troy - their roommate, their brother, their best friend. Troy was the brother role that neither Abed and Annie can fill for each other.

In Basic Sandwich, we get this exchange:

Abed: The point is, this show, Annie, it isn't just their show. This is our show, and it's not over. And the sooner we find that treasure, the faster the Jeff-Britta pilot falls apart. Annie: Got it. Thank you, Abed. Abed: You're welcome. I have a girlfriend. Annie: What? Abed: You were about to start a kiss lean. Annie: I was not.

Not only did Abed saw right through Annie’s anxiety and comforted her in his own uniquely Abed way, but he also felt the need to remind her of his girlfriend. The fact that he broke the fourth wall here is likely the writers’ way to be meta, but simply acknowledging the tension and bond there says a lot in between the lines. If tension does not exist, there would be no need for this line.

Besides, instead of thinking that they’re strictly platonic (which of course is also okay), they would rather work great as a couple. In terms of opposites attract, Annie grounds Abed with just the right amount, while Abed clearly encourages Annie to be her true self and be immature. Such as this scene in Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism,

Annie: I’m following him. Troy: You moving in here was supposed to tone us down!

Annie also doesn’t just tolerate Abed’s idiosyncrasies, she actually likes them and fully participates as multiple paintball games and cosplays would tell us. Special shoutout to the missing lovers footage in Wedding Videography, which through Britta, actually shows us that Annie is the only one who would go along with Abed’s projects - while Britta found the project extremely weird and unhealthy, Annie thought it was fun and commits well to her role.

And while others may tiptoe around Abed, Annie isn’t afraid to call Abed out when he’s out of line and makes a point to teach him about empathy in Virtual Systems Analysis. Remember that Britta tried teaching him this but it didn’t work as well.

I am Abed Nadir... And I don't know a lot of things everyone else knows. I wander the universe with my friend, Troy, doing whatever I want. Sometimes accidentally hurting innocent unremarkables. This week, however, Troy went to lunch and I adapted. I now have the ability to enter the minds of others using an elusive new technique known as "empathy".

As well as in the entire episode of Cooperative Polygraphy.

They also know each other best. Abed knew her cushion preferences, was the one who spelled out her true pas.sion for forensics, and after living together, Annie knew how to navigate Abed’s peculiarities and to soothe him whenever he had a nervous breakdown.

Annie also knows him so well that she can predict his reaction.

They are also each other’s exception. Annie was always the one who manages to pull Abed out of a trance and back to reality, usually with touch.

Abed is also very forgiving with her. An example is when Annie seemingly lost all common sense because she broke Abed’s special edition dvd in Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism.

Annie: Well, Batman, on behalf of all of us that aren't perfect, can I just say I'm sorry I broke your DVD? Abed: Apology accepted. But I wouldn't mention it to Abed. That guy's pretty ruthless. And that's coming from Batman.

And in Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas, Annie was the only claymation doll that didn’t have a weird form (except Troy as toy soldier of course). Annie was a ballerina because Abed sees her as a creature of grace. Abed was also the first one who got her “brighter tomorrow” diorama and responded with enthusiasm.

They are also in the same stage in life. As Dan Harmon explains the choice of Abed and Annie being the ones who leave the group, with Troy gone, Abed and Annie symbolize the many possibilities of the future - a possibility that makes them viable. I like to think Annie transfers to the LA FBI office after her internship and they reunite.

And as the Spice Girls said, “if you wanna be my love.r, you gotta get with my friends”. In Paleyfest, Dan Harmon says this about whoever Troy and Abed ends up dating, “I mean a woman that comes into either of their lives is either going to drive them apart or she's going to have to be really accepting of a very special relationship”.

Britta tolerated their friendship but to a point of asking Annie to distract Abed for alone time with Troy, Troy dumped the librarian as she called Abed weird, Robin disappeared, Rachel we never got to see much of, but was pretty quiet and separated from the group. From this, logically speaking, Annie would actually be the perfect match for Abed, as we all know they’re the ultimate trio within the study group and a transition from friends to more will be natural.

Oh, and, Abed is wrong. They’re not Chandler and Phoebe with little storylines together, they’re Chandler and Monica.

Anyway, that’s it for my super long rant/analysis. Community the series is done and over, so there isn’t a need for any ship war. All I want to say is, if #andamovie happens, hopefully, the writers will actually take a leap.

#abed x annie #community #annie x abed #abed nadir #annie edison #sorry if you've seen this already i'm trying to figure out why my tags won't work #mine #thoughts

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tippitv · 4 years

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RECAP: Supernatural 15.03 “The Rupture”

Watching episode three and I finally understand the warding logistics better now. Note that just because I understand it better doesn’t mean I think it makes any kind of sense.

So it seems the “mile wide salt circle” encompasses both the town and the cemetery. Like the entire town and entire cemetery and the space in between them is somehow less than a mile wide as seen in the shitty map I made in MS paint last week.

This is poppycock of course. It’s also bizarre that somehow all these demons and ghosts didn’t manage to spread any further out than that in the hours in took the Winchesters et al to evacuate the town and for Belphegor to perform the spell.

I’m so distracted by this that it’s hard for me to suspend my disbelief.

Rowena tries to reinforce the warding but there are too many ghosts attacking it. More ghosts keep spewing out of the ground. I think it’s weird that Hell is an actual physical place somewhere under the Earth’s crust while Heaven seems to be some kind of otherworldly dimension that looks like an Apple store.

Rowena’s feeling very defeated. Ruth Connell is doing a much better job than the crummy ghosts we've seen so far would seem to warrant. Her acting makes them seem scary and the situation desperate, whereas the writing for the actual ghost characters is...meh. Dean wants to go fight the ghosts but like… there’s really nothing to be done. Shooting them with iron or rock salt only works for a few minutes at most. To make any dent, you'd need all the salt in the Hannibal fandom after NBC canceled it. Shout out to my Fannibals!

I still think somebody needs to be thinking about contacting Billie. Reapers take souls to their great reward or their eternal punishment, I feel like they’d have some useful input. Plus I just want to see Billie again because Lisa Berry is dreamy.

Also Belphegor is such a weaselly jerk about the whole thing. I won't miss that guy. He's the Martin Shkrelli of demons. Shout out to everyone who hates jacked up pharmaceutical prices!

Sam says they're out of ideas. That's because y'all haven't sat around reading books out loud to each other for half an episode!

Jack mentions something called "Lilith's Crook." Ah, Martin Shkrelli again. He has to explain it's that curved stick thing shepherds use while everyone is being ignorant. "Thing's actually more of a horn," he says. She designed it to control demons on Earth while she was in Hell. You'd think that kind of thing would've come up when Lilith was topside but no! Also there really should've been a call back to that. "You know Lilith... you killed her to let Lucifer out?" That kind of thing.

They work out a plan for Belph to summon the demons and ghosts back to Hell and the Rowena can heal the big spewing fistula in the earth. She wants Sam to assist her, which makes me

Dean coolly volunteers Castiel to accompany Belph. "You've been to Hell before." Cas should've been like, "Yeah to grip your ass tight and raise it from Perdition!" Also how's he supposed to get out again?

Aw jeez here's Ketch in his hospital room. I hope the only reason he's in this episode is to die. The nurse doesn't want to clear him for discharge so a pretty doctor walks in and kills her with a telekinetic neck snap. And that's why we have a nursing shortage in this country! Oh the doctor is Ardat, the demon who hired Ketch to kill Belph.

Fisticuffs ensue even though she could just pin him in place with demonic power. When he refuses to give up the Winchesters, she rips out his heart and shows it to him. He Pikachu faces at her.

I mean, did she really need to ask him? Wouldn't the most likely place be the mile-wide anti-ghost dome? She texts Dean pretending to be Ketch.

Belphegor goads Castiel about his friends sacrificing him, so Cas pushes him down into the ghost fistula. Lol. It doesn't shut him up for long, though. As they wander around Hell, Belph continues to sow the seeds of doubt. Anyway, opening the chest that contains the Doohickey of the Week requires Castiel to sing an Enochian song of praise, but we cut away on the third note. BOO.

Also, having now met Lucifer the whiny petulant manbaby, it's really hard to understand why Lilith or anyone would be so devout for so long. Maybe it's because he was locked in the cage so they didn't actually experience a lot of his pouting. It's all I can think of.

Before Castiel can hand over the Doohickey, Ardat knocks him out of the way. She looks like Joanna Gaines. Maybe she IS Joanna Gaines!

Castiel and Ardat fight. She tries to warn him about Belphegor, but he pops up behind her and kills her with Cas's fallen angel blade. Now we'll never know what she was gonna say! I bet he ends up just blabbing it out himself in the time-honored tradition of villains talking too much.

Indeed, he goes on about how the crook/horn is actually a leash/siphon. This thing is the Swiss Army knife of Doohickeys. He's going to blow the horn and suck all the demons and ghosts into himself to gain their powers. "I'll be a god!"

So while Belph is blowing and sucking, Sam and Rowena and Dean are dirtside working the spell. Ghosts are zooming back down the hole like the Indiana Jones Ark of the Covenant scene in reverse. Castiel tackles Belph and punches him in the face a lot which seems like the equivalent of flicking a dandelion at a law mower to stop it.

Improbably, it hurts jazzed-up Belphegor enough that he pretends to be Jack again to get Cas to stop beating him. Castiel screws up all his angel power and somehow kills him even though there's a buttload of evil spirits in him. Jack's empty body burns like a Thanksgiving turkey left on broil all day.

The ground starts sealing up but something's wrong. Rowena uses a knife to gouge out a "resurrection sachet" she's been keeping buried under her skin. It's why she came back after Lucifer killed her, if you'll recall. It takes Sam a minute to catch on that she intends to sacrifice herself in one final spell. He has to be the one to kill her because prophecy and she can't bring herself to to it for a lot of good reasons.

Now, I don't understand here. She says she's going to absorb all the demons and ghosts, throw herself into Hell, and they'll be trapped. But... didn't Belphegor absorb them? Or a lot of them? I hate that Ruth is doing such a great job and this just feels like forced drama.

Speaking of forced drama. Castiel returns to the surface and tells Dean he killed Belphegor. This could be cleared up with a five second explanation but he makes a lot of pained faces while Dean berates him for ruining their one chance. Forced drama.

Sam reluctantly stabs her in the lower belly... you know, in the uterus area... and she becomes a vessel... with her uterus absorbing all the evil...

"Goodbye boys," she says as she Last of the Mohicans throws herself into the abyss.

Well, it's better than Charlie's death but I still don't like it.

All the surviving team members return to the bunker for the denouement. Sam is taking things pretty hard, which is to be expected, so Dean goes to check on him. "God threw one last apocalypse at us and we beat it," he says to baby bro. Oh honey.

Anyway we're all pretty sure Rowena's going to be running Hell now, right? RIGHT??

Now we come to the part where Dean and Castiel act out a bad soap opera scene. It's just a thin reason to get them to break up for a while. Maybe in the final season they couldn't work Misha into the budget for every episode or maybe the writers couldn't think of more for Castiel to do. So he's gotta go off and it couldn't just be because "you know my surrogate son just died and I need time."

No it's gotta be all "you always screw up our plans!" and "you don't trust me!" and "are you hearing that romantically sad cello music or is it just me?" and "it's not just you but now I must leave GOOD BYE!"

Onward and upward, readers! Stay tuned for the next recap.

In the meantime, please reblog if you enjoyed this recap and drop by my Ko-Fi tip Jar if you're able. Henry Hound and I are perpetually trying to make ends meet and appreciate your help!

https://ko-fi.com/A4017DA

#supernatural #spn recap #my recaps #tippitv #the rupture

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cap-samwilson · 5 years

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guardian angel

don’t ask me where this came from. this is a mess of lore, ideas, probable typos, and feelings that came out in about a few hours of furiously pounding on my keyboard. i hope reading it makes someone happy somewhere. heavily inspired by this by @persehpone and this by @mechinaries.

“sam, i’m coming in.”

it’s the result of his failed attempts to prevent steve from opening the door - first by nonchalantly trying to brush off the light coming from under the bedroom door as a faulty fixture, then by frantically shouting “no” as the door knob began to turn. if he had been in a better state of mind, perhaps he could’ve had some kind of persuasion push through. but the fact was that living as a full-time avenger and avenging angel drained a guy, especially when his power had to be muted to keep him on earth and not burning people’s eyes out at the sight of him in the first place.

so, the door opens. and there he is, in all of his glory, the signature brow furrow by captain america himself startled off of his face as he looks at wings that fill the damn room, white as hell and still itchy from being kept hidden for so long.

sam huffs, and it’s not a blush on his cheeks, because angels don’t blush. they aren’t flustered. it’s more a... frustrated tinge of color as a result of being flummoxed by steve rogers’ stubbornness.

“well, are you going to stand there with the door wide open where anyone can see or are you gonna come in, dammit?”

sam wilson is made before the beginning of time itself, and knows that worlds that spin on an axis tend to be born, live, and then die. there’s a beginning for them, and sometimes he envies that - being able to start from scratch is a blessing that none of his kind get. they were made. by something, by nothing they were breathed into the air, perhaps. gone one moment and there the next. which moment? it’s... uncertain. fully formed, though, they are, and then the rest of the cosmos come and go in a flash around them, whirling in spirals of color and stars until something new comes from them. something like life.

space, power, reality, time, they unfold like a map before all of them, him and his siblings. the first cries of life echo through the emptiness and something answers back. souls are molded,

these things grow. they evolve, become better. faster, stronger, smarter. there’s beauty in all of it, watching the skrulls begin to shapeshift on their own, or the klyntar learn to bond to their host. these things don’t come all at once, y’know, something had to do it first.

except, sometimes, they need a little help.

because when worlds come and go, you see a lot of endings. see a lot of implosion as well as explosion, an entire species, or planet, or fucking galaxy coming to an end in a spectacular display or... or dying out with a whimper. those are the ones that hurt, that have sam sobbing in his rooms on earth at night. when you dream you see those endings, hear them like a ghost.

but not all endings have to be bad. sometimes with a world, hurtling toward destruction, a simple push toward the right direction can right its course. turn the tide.

not all, of course. some set their paths from their first step, and the angels try to ease their pain before they go. but others, it just takes a little nudge, and... well.

that nudge is sam’s whole job.

“so you’re... an angel?” steve asks, and sam is stopped in his weaving of the tale. it sends him hurtling back to reality, this reality, where he’s sitting on a bed with his wings reaching wall to wall, with steve rogers sitting in front of him. he looks pale, but his jaw is set. as if he’s determined to listen to the end of this story before waking up from whatever dream he’s sure he’s in.

his mind has never been the clearest when he’s in a form like this, so sam takes a moment to answer, his hand lowering from where it was dramatically raised to frame the ceiling in his mind’s eye - seeing beyond it to where the galaxies he’s describing rest.

“i... guess that’s what you’d call me, yes,” sam answers, and his voice comes off a little petulant before he can stop it. it’s... more than that, but he knows it’s the nature of the beast. they’ve been around for forever, and so their mark is left on civilizations all over. but here and now. wings, slight glow, coming from above - just go with it, wilson. “called different things, to different peoples, but, yes. to you, or at least a lot of humans, an angel.”

“are you a fallen angel?” steve asks next. his voice is a little warmer, now, almost joking, and sam snorts a bit.

“not exactly. i mean, i didn’t fall to get here.”

well. he kinda did.

sam feels the planet called earth by its residents, midgard by others, terran by others still - a species all their own, and he feels them all. feels their struggles as they build great cities and the walls come crumbling around them, their joys as they bring new life where they can with crops and bountiful harvests.

he takes an interest in them. why? maybe it’s their smiles. the way they walk. the odd songs they sing. earth isn’t particular special, but. there’s something about them that he’s drawn to.

so when he goes to observe the rest of the cosmos, dances from place to place, sometimes its an earth song in his ear. his siblings tease him for it, but they all have their favorites. they’re not perfect.

perhaps that’s what has him visiting the first time. asking around for a way to walk along their streets. just for a moment.

that first moment ends up being a century. and it takes a lot out of him. the first time he attempted, the ground was scorched, and he learned his lesson about announcing his presence due to the faces that melted at the sight of him.

“wait, wait, wait. like that movie?”

“what movie?”

“raiders of the lost ark. the one we watched with tony. their faces, the nazis, melted off at the sight of the inside of the ark of the covenant. like that?”

“i... guess. kind of.”

“that’s... kind of gross.”

“you know that i can melt faces and you’re insulting me?”

“it’s not an insult. just an observation that it’s kind of disgusting.”

“turning it into a movie reference like that spider-kid does not make it any less offensive.”

“or less gross.”

“you gonna shut up and let me finish?”

he visits more often. fine tunes what he can and can’t reveal. and slowly there’s an attachment that can’t be shaken. no matter where he is, his heart longs to be back, to walk with them once again. the teasing from his siblings turns into cruel truths, reminders of what happens to those they choose to watch from above.

they die.

all of them. eventually. even the ones that live the longest eventually fall. it is only angels that can withstand, and that immortality comes at a price all its own.

but even when he sees it up close, weeps with them, there is no changing the heart. the soul.

his light grows a little dimmer than his siblings. the glow a little less sharp. but even through his pain, he can’t change his compassion. the fact that since the beginning his steps walked him toward those that needed him the most, from planet to planet, people to people.

so, he makes a career out of it, you could say. come in, fix things, and get out. the ultimate game-changer. the key part being leaving. eventually, he rises up above them once again. there is only so much a being can do, even a celestial one, and... sometimes they don’t follow his advice. but he always has to leave eventually. because in the end, he doesn’t belong. he is not one of them. no matter where he goes, his siblings remain in the sky. some join his noble quest. others don’t, but they all have a home far above the ground.

until...

he pauses.

steve’s walking close to him now. they’d moved since they started talking, as the hour got late and sam’s wings folded up once again. the pair of ‘em had vanished with a blink, and watching steve almost fall over at the sudden shift had sam laughing loud enough that jarvis politely requested they quiet.

he remembers where they are, of course. a tower, with more than just the two of them. so sam urges the two of them to take their conversation outside, into the trees in central park, where the cameras end, the surveillance equipment cease.

a little help from sam makes it so.

it’s a long way. but they both make it eventually, and sam takes the time to think about his next step. does he tell all he’s done? what he’s changed?

but, too soon, they’re seated again, sharing a log that had fallen where no one could hear, and steve looks to him expectantly.

“until what, sam?”

until the earth screams.

it happens over and over again, and that’s the only way sam can describe it. a call for help across the universe, and he answers.

his hands are messy at this point, with earth’s blood. but that only means he stumbles with them as they pull themselves back to their feet. he is in the ears of prophets, of leaders, of generals. he finds himself working to save those he knows he can’t. his fate and this puny world’s are so intertwined, he no longer hears from his siblings anymore. can barely make out their words over the cries of a rock in the middle of ths solar system.

but there’s something here that calls to him, even if he can’t discern it, yet. more than just the people, the animals, the trees, the waters. there’s power here. and it will rock the heavens with its might.

it ebbs and flows, sam’s touch. sometimes he pulls back enough that he can almost see the heavens once again. but before long, he gets dragged back into the depths, saving lives, touching hearts, looking for what can chill the blood of an angel.

and then.

steve rogers aims to bury the nose of a giant flying ship into the northern oceans.

it’s before sam can even think that he’s back at earth again, watching from his view from above with a proverbial hand against the glass. something about this scene has his heart racing, his body thrumming, the world calling out to him, begging for the turn of the tide.

steve rogers crashes into the waves, and sam feels it. what shook him to his core. and before he can think, his hand reaches out, and the waters freeze, and for a moment he is there, alone. a heart beating beneath the ice. and... something else.

“the tessaract.”

“yes.”

this is a journey that sam has never seen. a path that sam has never dared to take. but this path wasn’t one of his design, of course. no, chance rolls the die, and the earth suffers for it.

the night air is quiet. it’s early morning, before the sun even thinks to rise, and sam has told it all. how much this “something else” scared him. how much power it held, how little this tiny world could handle. how his hand reached out to try and protect the earth and ended up hurting as well as helping.

but he had done his best, with the time he had. found people on this planet who could turn the tide. there’s something in all of them, something selfless, and he dares to make their steps turn together. steve rogers freezes. natasha romanoff escapes. thor odinson steps onto this world and sam corrals him into a corner, makes him care for those lesser than he. tony stark survives. again and again, he survives, he perseveres, and clint barton sees things where no one else dares to look. bruce banner’s anger becomes a force for good, and soon they’re walking together, the walls of the tower thick with their laughter. sam feels their lives weaving a tapestry, thick and colorful, and before he can force himself to stop his own existence becomes a piece of the puzzle. it’s a family, he realizes, a little too late, when he’s looking over a glass of wine at the merry band of misfits he’s collected.

one he’d hate to lose.

there are others. around the world, who will be urged, he’s sure. but for now, this is who he has. and he looks at their faces, and realizes that he’s scared.

“there’s something big coming, steve,” he whispers. his breath comes out as steam. the future makes his hands tremble, like nothing else has dared to do. “you’ve heard it from tony stark, in his own way. and now you’re hearing it from me. there’s something big, and... i don’t know if we can stop it.”

but of course, it’s steve rogers. that only seems to make his brow furrow once more, and he tells him how they’ll face it together, like they do now.

“everything we do, we do together,” he insists, and it makes sam’s heart pound in his chest.

“and if i’m wrong?” sam challenged, standing suddenly, his collar tight. there’s a glow coming from him, unbidden, and the air warms around them. “if i did this for nothing? if i can’t protect you guys? never mind that i know i’ll watch it all fall apart eventually. if i can’t save you... i’ll go on living and knowing that i failed you. all of you.”

there are tears, he’s realizing, as they drip into the grass. they shine before a moment before disappearing into the earth. he sniffs, and wipes them away as best he can, and when he turns to look at steve his smile is shaky. a strange creature luxury, to cry.

“this is my home, now,” the angel whispers, and he shakes with that truth. feels his bond to the heavens ache with the stretch, feels his feet plant on the firmament beneath him. this little planet, and all its people, and the lives that are sleeping in that damn tower, ready to save it. “you guys are my home.”

steve is standing close, now. sam’s surprised his brows haven’t singed. there are hands on his shoulders, and surely they are burning, but he doesn’t even flinch.

“it’s mine, too,” steve tells him. “and tony’s, and nat’s. it’s bruce’s and clint’s and even thor’s, in his own way. it’s our home, and... well. if i’m to believe a guy with wings, it’s all thanks to him.” that’s said with a little grin, one that means joking and teasing, and sam manages a laugh through the sniffles, his wings flutter, too, breaking the illusion of vanishing, and steve doesn’t even flinch this time.

“not all of it,” sam manages, shrugging. “i didn’t make you guys who you are. i just... made sure the way forward was a little more clear than it might’ve been.”

steve laughs again, a little softer. and his hands squeeze tight. “you really trying to be humble, right now? this is a pep talk, okay?”

“well, i’m waiting for the pep,” he intones drily.

“and here it is,” steve returns, without missing a beat. “this is our home, okay? all of us. and we’re gonna protect it. no matter what. it’s that simple. no matter what happens, no matter what portal or doorways or... tessaracts come to find us, we’ll save the world again and again and again. together. that’s a promise, sam. you hear me? together.”

the world is quiet. the future is uncertain. but sam looks up at steve, his eyes wide and still and little shiny, and he knows.

it’s a promise he’s gonna keep.

with another sniffle, sam pulls steve close enough that he can bury himself in him. they grip each other in the light of the morning sun. its rays are warm, the dew forming like it does with each new day. it rises past the horizon and shines on their skin, and they’re still in yesterday’s clothes. soon their feet move toward the tower again, and the central park authorities are none the wiser.

together. all of them.

and sam’s gonna make sure it happens.

fin.

#sam wilson #guardian angel au #fanfic #my fic #marvel #mcu #steve rogers #samsteve if you squint #wing au #wings #angel au #angel sam wilson

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tellittomyblog · 5 years

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Halo in 2019: A Newbie’s Review of a Series, 18 Years Late (Part 2)

In this series, I give an honest account of playing the Halo games for the first time in 2019. Last week I played the first entry in the series, Halo:CE, and found the game to be worthy of its status as a classic.

With that in mind, I went into Halo 2 with some fairly high expectations, and for the most part, those expectations were met. Here are my thoughts on...

Halo 2

Well I guess there’s one benefit of playing the game this many years late; I don’t have to wait 4 years to see what happens after that cliffhanger of an ending. 2004 me would have felt very cheated if I found out I would have to buy a new console to see the rest of the story.

But before I discuss what is clearly the game’s weakest point, I want to first talk about where Halo 2 succeeds.

Last week, I praised Halo:CE’s confidence when it came to telling its story, drawing upon years of film to create a game that really did feel cinematic. Some might argue that the realisation of their cinematic vision was held back by the limitations of the engine. The same cannot be said for Halo 2. There is a complexity to the cutscenes that was absent in the first game; more varied camera angles, a focus on secondary characters within the scene, cross cutting between the Arbiter and the Master Chief. If Halo:CE was a loving imitation of cinema, then Halo 2 is the transcendence from imitation to the creation of something wholly original.

It begins with the decision to make the player an active participant in both sides of the war. By placing us in the shoes of the Arbiter as well as the Master Chief, we gain an understanding of the Covenant that we didn’t have in Halo:CE. This is felt most profoundly in the opening cutscene, which cuts between the celebration of the Master Chief’s success and the condemnation of the Arbiter’s failure. It was a narrative shift that took me completely by surprise, and yet it was necessary in creating a believable and engaging world.

This is because Halo 2 offers us information that constantly makes us question our perception of events, such as the invasion of Earth. As the attack begins, we play as the Master Chief, defending ourselves from what is clearly an attempt to finish what the Covenant began in the first game. Yet we soon learn that the High Prophet of Regret, the instigator of the attack, was not expecting a human force to be present on Earth, putting the motivations of the invasion into question. The simple fight against evil in the first game here becomes something much messier, and Halo 2′s slow revelations feel all the more rewarding for it.

If I could criticise the story in one place (aside from the ending), it would be in the decision to give the Flood a voice through Gravemind. Previously, I spoke about their Lovecraftian influences; they were a powerful, terrifying, and ancient force whose motivations are seemingly unknowable. But by providing the Flood with a direct way to communicate their plans, much of that terror has been stripped away. It's certainly not a direction I was expecting them to take, and I hope they don't use Gravemind to answer every question I might have about the Flood. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

In terms of gameplay, there has been a series of small but meaningful improvements that go a long way in creating a more enjoyable experience. Last week, I complained about the handling of the Warthog, whose uneven physics often left me upside down and more than a little frustrated. When I first encountered this old enemy in Halo 2, I could already see the trail of destruction in the wake of my less than stellar driving. And yet, this trepidation soon turned to joy as I was asked not to drive, but to simply man the mounted turret. That I could do. This small additional offering of choice vastly improved my time with the game, particularly when the AI was just as competent as they were in Halo: CE. Add dual wielding and vehicle sections that don't feel like a chore, and you have a game that truly is a joy to play even in 2019.

And now onto that ending.

I'm not completely against cliffhangers. They provide a sense of anticipation for the next game, and it's always enjoyable to question what comes next. But for a cliffhanger to be effective, the main plot has to be resolved in a satisfactory way. The problem with Halo 2's ending is that the game feels like 2/3 of a story. Our main motivation is to find the index and stop the Halo ring from wiping out all life in the galaxy, and so the expectation is for that to be resolved by the end of the game, particularly when we achieved the same in the first game. And yet the credits roll with the mission still ongoing, the Master Chief hitching a ride on the Ark to finish the job.

Whilst there are story threads that are tied up by the end of the campaign, such as the death of Tartarus, and the Arbiter's redemption, there is little satisfaction to be had when we're told there's one more thing left to do but we'll have to wait until the next game to do it. It feels unfinished, inconclusive and ultimately disappointing, particularly when the storytelling was so strong up until this point.

Ultimately then, Halo 2 is a game to be commended for its many strengths. It is an achievement both technical and in regards to the world Bungie have continued to build upon. But I was left with a feeling of deflation from a vision so clearly cut short. As I move on to Halo 3, I have to wonder; will Bungie ever nail an ending?

#halo #halo2 #xbox #xboxone #gaming

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cosmosogler · 7 years

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i feel sick... i can’t eat very much. it’s so frustrating.

i woke up on time even though i was grumbling about it to my alarm. i had a very, very violent dream. it’s amazing how impactful a few minutes out of hours and hours can be. it was like that scene from indiana jones where the nazis open the ark of the covenant cut into the middle of a platform puzzle. though it’s not hard to see why the house was so burned-out considering what was in the tree the house was built around.

phew. ok. breakfast was really difficult. i had some toaster strudels because i just wanted something that tasted nice. i mostly poked around all morning until about 8:55 when i left for campus. i was early to my lab so i took a few deep breaths in the office while i waited for ioannis to finish teaching his section.

i found out recently that his name is spelled with an i and not with a u. that might explain why he thought i was calling him “janice” instead of “janus.”

greek spelling is weird.

i taught my lab. i didn’t do as badly as last week, but i did make a big goof while explaining the vector graph and that made half the class’ labs wrong in the last page. i’ll make a note on everyone’s work and not take any points off because that is my fault. i only discovered that i’d made such a boneheaded mistake when it was giving one table a lot of trouble. i wondered why no one had asked me about it before them. maybe it’s because most of their vectors were coming out pretty even in length so the mistake wasn’t noticeable until one table had uneven vectors to work with. i dunno.

ugh... my stomach hurts a lot. after my lab i went to my office hour and had a small snack. after my hour was up i went in the office and ate some of my salad but i didn’t like it enough to eat all of it. it’s not very much salad at all but i only ate like 2/3 of it. i left most of the other food alone except for a little dried fruit strip.

then after i took a little while getting settled i worked on homework until 3, when i had my meeting with the e&m professor about my disability accommodations. that took quite a while, especially since he had highlighted the fine print and scolded me for not reading it.

admittedly i did not read the fine print, which said i was required to hold an appointed conference with my professor to discuss the accommodations. i had been told by the office that i could just drop it off in their mailbox and only had to talk if i wanted to so i went off what i was directly told. but it took him a couple minutes to tell me that i was wrong so i sat and listened to how i was wrong.

i went back in the office, had a cookie, and then went to meet with my quantum professor. that took about 5 minutes. he just wanted to know what the words meant and where i wanted to take my extended tests since the classroom wouldn’t be available for all my allotted time.

then i went back in the office and had one of my “fig bars” (like a granola bar, but made of fig newton) and went back to work. i was a little over halfway done with the assignment by 5 when i met with my mechanics professor. he just wanted to read the accommodation letter out loud to make sure he had everything right. that took 3 minutes.

i’m... not confident about my physics abilities. you know that already. i worried i was annoying suzanne by asking if i was doing it right after every step. i did figure out what to do by myself some of the time though! and she would say i was right except for like a factor of 2 that i missed somewhere, or a misplaced negative sign. that’s a good sign, right?

by 7:30 i was so tired that i gave up on the second half of the last question and didn’t want to ask suzanne about it any more. i saw that the bus would arrive in about 18 minutes so i packed up and headed to the bus stop. but the bus schedule app was wrong! the bus was 10 minutes earlier than it said it would be, so i just missed the last bus home. i had to walk 40 minutes home. it was dark when i got to the apartment.

is it... possible to have an irritability-fueled panic attack? that’s what it felt like. i couldn’t breathe. i was so tired and hungry and angry. i was so worked up but i was also very restricted by my backpack’s straps and how heavy my textbook and notebooks were. i couldn’t get out any of that angry energy. so it came out in a lot of angry cursing thoughts and being unable to breathe and a hot face and itchy eyes and jerky arm motions while i tried to hold my backpack off my shoulders for just a few minutes to give them a break.

when i did get home i immediately made dinner. i made a whole bunch of spaghetti but i didn’t make it very well. i wasn’t in the mood to actually cook though.

the most frustrating thing was that i could feel inside that i was still starving but my body would not let me eat any more food. i had to throw away a whole bunch and i was still hungry but if i ate even one more bite i was going to puke. i had to lean over the sink and put my hands on the sides and take deep breaths. i still feel queasy.

by then it was after 9. mom called and i complained about my inability to eat and how tired it is making me. she told me to try harder to be not anxious.

ok, mom.

she did tell me that eve is starting to walk better, without bobbing her head up and down so much when she scoots her back foot forward. and i heard wiley barking. she didn’t say how diogi was doing. i don’t think she’s doing well.

mom wants for her and dad to come over during thanksgiving. she wants me to stay in orlando in a hotel room with both of them. i made a bunch of wishy washy excuses about homework and grading. but really i just don’t want to be in a hotel room with my Two Favorite People for even one night. even if during the day we’d be at universal studios or whatever. i’d just be stuck... in the middle of nowhere... with spongebob and patrick...

gh thinking about it makes me afraid and uncomfortable. if my siblings were there i might consider it briefly before declining, but just mom and dad? i didn’t even have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages. i don’t want to go to a theme park with just mom and dad. i don’t want to go ANYWHERE with just mom and dad.

ha. mom told me to just try harder yet again. that’s definitely what i needed to hear.

it’s 10:45. i was too slow getting ready for bed... the conversation with mom put me about 15 minutes behind but even then i’d be late. i still gotta give snoopy her meds... i just don’t want to do anything. i gotta go to three classes tomorrow and try to keep up. i feel like my body is shutting down, not just my brain. i feel slow and everything in my head (my teeth and jaw mostly but also my temples and forehead) hurts and i’m just uncomfortable everywhere. i can’t get my ankles to sit comfortably. my arms and shoulders and back and neck always feel stiff and bruised. i feel like if i could just eat... i might not feel so bad. even sleeping more isn’t helping enough.

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dailyaudiobible · 5 years

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05/09/2019 DAB Transcript

1 Samuel 5:1-7:17, John 6:1-21, Psalms 106:13-31, Proverbs 14:32-33

Today is the 9th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure to be here with you to take the next step forward on our journey through this week and through this month and through this year and through the Bible. And in the Old Testament, we are taking our steps through the book of first Samuel and getting to understand who Samuel was and what was going on when he came onto the scene and we have experienced the loss of the Ark of the Covenant in battle to the Philistines. And, so, we’ll pick up the story today. First Samuel chapters 5, 6, and 7. And we’re reading from the New English Translation this week.

Commentary:

Alright. We have quite a dramatic story beginning to unfold in front of us as we roll out first Samuel and work our way through it. So, the ark of the covenant, this symbol of the people had been lost in battle to the Philistines. The Philistines had certainly brought it rejoicing back to their Capital Cities. It first began it's moving around in the city of Ashdod. And Ashdod is a place that I've been many times. Ashdod is the place that we normally begin our pilgrimage when we go to the holy land. It's our first night. And, so, it's a place that exists. And when the ark of the covenant was captured it was taken to Ashdod. But, I mean, as demoralizing as losing the ark of the covenant would've been for the children of Israel, the Philistines, they didn't have the celebration that they were looking for. And, you know, at first it seemed like the Philistines god, Dagon, had defeated the God of the Hebrews, Yahweh, right? And, so, they got the ark, they got the symbol and they’re transporting it back to Dagon's temple but then Dagon falls over, right, for two consecutive days and the second day his heads broke off and his hands are broken off and then like skin tumors begin breaking out on the people. And, so, in fear for their lives they decide to move the ark inland away from the coast to the city of Gath, another one of their capital cities. And Gath was the home city of the giant Goliath and it also exists today. Actually, it’s still very much an active archaeological site where many things are being discovered about the Philistine people. But anyway, I mean, the people of Gath experienced the same thing the people of Ashdod experienced, this plague, this outbreak against them. And, so, then the ark was taken north to Ekron, which is a Philistine city I haven't been…I’ve tried to get there. We have tried to film Ekron twice and it's not an easy place to get to at all. It’s like not a place…you have to…you have to access it by four-wheel-drive and we've been stuck…I mean you have to cross fields and everything. So, we’ve been stuck in mud two different times in an attempt but it's there and eventually…eventually we’re getting gonna get there. But anyway, the ark of the covenant is on his way to Ekron and the people are freaking out about what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews might do to them. And, so, they begin bagging that the ark should probably back to the Hebrew people before the Philistine people are destroyed and that's what happened. So, the Philistines prepare this guilt offering, right? So, golden images of their tumors, golden rat, basically just acknowledging the plagues that have broken out and then they loaded the ark onto an ox cart and sent it away. And they thought, like, if the cattle know where to go, like if the cattle just wander away aimlessly then we’ll know this wasn't the God of Israel doing this, but if they follow the road, if they just…if they know where to go, then we’ll know it was the God of Israel. And the cows go straight back into Israeli territory ending at Beth Shemesh, which is also in existence today as a modern developing settlement but also as ancient ruins. I’ve been there many times, filmed there many times as well. I was shocked this past year at how much new discoveries were happening in Beth Shemesh that aren't even open to the public. There just on the side of the road, you can see them, and I was shocked. So, yeah, Beth Shemesh where the ark of the covenant returned is also an active archaeological site today. So, obviously, as the ark of the covenant came back to Beth Shemesh the people are overjoyed, the national treasure has returned, the emblem of their heritage has come back. The power of the Lord, the presence of the Lord they feel has come back but after they sacrifice and worship the Lord and some people try to look inside the ark, which is supremely forbidden, and they died. And, so, yeah. So, I mean, the ark of the covenant out in the wild, people are trying to figure out the secret of the mystery and it's just not working well. And, so, they’re like, “who is able to stand in the presence of the Lord?” So, as interesting and intriguing and dramatic as the situation was for the Philistines and then for the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, this entire episode solidified Samuel's leadership clearly. And as we read toward the end of our reading in the Old Testament because of that leadership the false idol worship was cleansed from Israel and the Philistines were subdued and the children of Israel had once again returned to the God who had called them out of Egypt and planted them in their homeland.

Now in our reading from Proverbs today we’re told that our hearts are the resting place for wisdom. Some translations even use like shrine language like wisdom is enshrined in the heart. So, in other words, an understanding heart is a resting place, a revered, sought after place for wisdom. And, so, we have to wonder. We have to allow the penetrating question. Are we actively seeking out wisdom in our lives? Is it an important enough thing that we have it enshrined in our heart, that it's a resting place, that it has a place to rest within us or is the chaos of life just leading us to be reactionary and all we’re doing is running in circles just trying to keep all the balls up in the air or have we carved out some sacred place for wisdom to find rest within us? Because like everything that's good and valuable in life, gaining wisdom isn't going to just happen to us. Like, It's not in default. Wisdom is something that we have to seek and treasure and cultivate and create space for it to rest, for it to be enshrined in our hearts. And all that's done by the choices that we make. The choices that we make today in our thoughts and in our words and in our deeds are either going to be creating a place, a revered sacred space for wisdom to rest or not. We’ll fill that sacred space with other things.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite You into that because we’re not going to get anywhere without becoming continually more and more wise. And that's not going to happen by experience alone. We need Your guidance because we don't know all that's going on. As much as we like to think that we have a handle on reality, we don't. There’s much more going on than we are ever aware of. You are fully aware and have invited us into a collaboration of life. And one of the ways that we build a collaboration is through cultivating an ear for wisdom. So, come Holy Spirit and give us eyes to see and ears to hear we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it is home base, its where you find out what's going on around here. So, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected in all the ways that you can, any way that you want to stay connected.

The Prayer Wall is at dailyaudiobible.com, which is wonderful, wonderful place to connect and pray for each other. So, check that out. The Daily Audio Bible shop is at dailyaudiobible.com as well. Check out the resources there that are available for this journey as we continue to walk our way through the Bible.

Also, man, we just like…we keep encountering places that are real places in the Bible. And if you want to see some of these places for yourself you can check that out at dailyaudiobible.com for our 2020 pilgrimage. All the details can be found in the Initiatives section at dailyaudiobible.com. Just look for Israel 2020 and all your questions can be answered there. These tours, they all fill up and they all fill up well in advance. And, so, this one's well on its way to being full. So, you may want to check into that if it's kind of on your list, something that's been in the back of your mind.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link, it lives on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. I humbly and with a heart of gratitude thank…thank you for clicking that link. If you're using the daily by app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Springhill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Greetings everyone, this is Tony from Germany and I just want to share something neat. I guess I’d call this a praise report. I was on a trip. I’m in two southern, no, pardon me, northern Italy and it was a bus tour with some government staff, some military that work here in the area. And at any rate, there was this one woman, her name was Pam or PJ and she was behind a lot of the coordination of the trip. And, so, we had met right away and chatted a little bit and this trip by the way it was only a two day fast-paced kind of situation, a lot of time on the bus. And then the second day we were visiting a vineyard and I was standing in line to partake in one of the tours and suddenly here comes up Pam, she comes up to me and she said something to the effect that of I want to give you a hug and she gave me a hug and hello dear I think she said, I don’t remember, I wish I remembered exactly what she said. And she said I am a DABber also and I was in shock, I was in shock. And Pam has been listening to DAB for 14 years. She was there when it started. So, I asked her to ask me how I was doing, and she did, and I said I am maintaining. And, so, I must say I was in shock, it was just…it was so beautiful. At any rate I think it would be a great idea if Brian or Jill or China would come out here to Europe, so we can have a reunion of the European DABbers. Planting the seed. Have a great day everyone. Love you. Bye.

Good morning DAB I just wanted to reach out to the anonymous nursing students. My friends you are so close, and I know how hard it is. I’ve been there, I am a nurse for 22 years and I have a daughter that just graduated last year, and I walked through that with her. You will shed tears. It is so hard. People just don’t know how hard it is; however you are almost there, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I just will pray that you will have peace and comfort and remember that all of this book knowledge is fabulous; however the core of being a nurse is having compassion and mercy and advocating for your patients. And if you have those things you have won the battle. So, keep the faith keep my friends, keep studying, keep working. It will be worth it in the end. I also want to give a shout out real quick to some people that helped me yesterday. I wish I knew their names, I don’t but I was driving down __ Ritchie highway in Brooklyn Park Maryland and saw __. It was a busy street and we got out and a couple other people came upon and helped and we got him out of the street and onto the sidewalk and I just praise the Lord for His timing and for these people. God bless everyone. This is Carrie signing off.

Hi, good morning Daily Audio Bible, my name is Angela and I’m calling from Louisiana. It’s been a very long time since I’ve called, and I’m returning. I started listening again. Thank God for that. It’s been awesome listening again. I want to ask for a prayer request, excuse me, for my daughter Brean. She’s in nursing school, she’s overcome a lot. She’s having finals this week and I’m just asking that…for prayer for her. She’s in RN school. So, please pray for her that she does well and for her college courses and on her exams please. I’m also having an exam for a promotion at work. So, I’m asking for your prayer that I passed that exam, so I can be promoted to the next level. I want to congratulate China and Ben. My gosh, the last time I heard from China she was a little girl. So, that’s how long I’ve been gone. But praise God that I’m back. And I love, and I miss hearing from everyone. Thank you so much and thank God for Brian and Jill and the whole community. Have a blessed day. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Marilyn from New Hampshire calling on Tuesday, May 7

. I just listened to Brian and I was really moved by the word today. About the blind man next to the pool in Bethesda. We were just there in Israel a couple months ago. And how Jesus said to the blind man, “Get up. Take your mat and get up.” And then at the end of the prayer today this amazing man said who…you know…he was talking…he didn’t say his name, but he said, “hey you, hey you” a couple times very slowly and obviously he got my attention and then he said, “why are you worrying?” And that really spoke to me today because I worry about my daughters Kate and Grace and I can’t do that anymore. I gotta trust God. I gotta give them to Him. And I’m almost 66 and I don’t want to live my life this way anymore. I want to trust God. __ and I don’t want to worry anymore. I want to live my life of joy and pleasing God and I guess I pray this for other people too that struggle with their children and holding onto them and worrying about them and I get a text from Kate. I go, “I don’t know”. She’s almost 39 and I just got to give her to God and live my life. So, Father God I ask for Your forgiveness God for just keep getting back on the __ train and I ask for Your forgiveness. And Father God help me with this Lord, help all of us God. Thank you, Brian and Jill for this amazing family. Community family, we love you and thank you God. Have a great day. Bye-bye.

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