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racefortheironthrone · 1 year

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Why People Are Wrong About the Puritans of the English Civil War and New England

Oh well, if you all insist, I suppose I can write something.

(oh good, my subtle scheme is working...)

Introduction:

So the Puritans of the English Civil War is something I studied in graduate school and found endlessly fascinating in its rich cultural complexity, but it's also a subject that is popularly wildly misunderstood because it's caught in the jaws of a pair of distorted propagandistic images.

On the one hand, because the Puritans settled colonial New England, since the late 19th century they've been wrapped up with this nationalist narrative of American exceptionalism (that provides a handy excuse for schoolteachers to avoid talking about colonial Virginia and the centrality of slavery to the origins of the United States). If you went to public school in the United States, you're familiar with the old story: the United States was founded by a people fleeing religious persecution and seeking their freedom, who founded a society based on social contracts and the idea that in the New World they were building a city on a hill blah blah America is an exceptional and perfect country that's meant to be an example to the world, and in more conservative areas the whole idea that America was founded as an explicitly Christian country and society. Then on the other hand, you have (and this is the kind of thing that you see a lot of on Tumblr) what I call the Matt Damon-in-Good-Will-Hunting, "I just read Zinn's People's History of the United States in U.S History 101 and I'm home for my first Thanksgiving since I left for colleg and I'm going to share My Opinions with Uncle Burt" approach. In this version, everything in the above nationalist narrative is revealed as a hideous lie: the Puritans are the source of everything wrong with American society, a bunch of evangelical fanatics who came to New England because they wanted to build a theocracy where they could oppress all other religions and they're the reason that abortion-banning, homophobic and transphobic evangelical Christians are running the country, they were all dour killjoys who were all hopelessly sexually repressed freaks who hated women, and the Salem Witch Trials were a thing, right?

And if anyone spares a thought to examine the role that Puritans played in the English Civil War, it basically short-hands to Oliver Cromwell is history's greatest monster, and didn't they ban Christmas?

Here's the thing, though: as I hope I've gotten across in my posts about Jan Hus, John Knox, and John Calvin, the era of the Reformation and the Wars of Religion that convulsed the Early Modern period were a time of very big personalities who were complicated and not very easy for modern audiences to understand, because of the somewhat oblique way that Early Modern people interpreted and really believed in the cultural politics of religious symbolism. So what I want to do with this post is to bust a few myths and tease out some of the complications behind the actual history of the Puritans.

Did the Puritans Experience Religious Persecution?

Yes, but that wasn't the reason they came to New England, or at the very least the two periods were divided by some decades. To start at the beginning, Puritans were pretty much just straightforward Calvinists who wanted the Church of England to be a Calvinist Church. This was a fairly mainstream position within the Anglican Church, but the "hotter sort of Protestant" who started to organize into active groups during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I were particularly sensitive to religious symbolism they (like the Hussites) felt smacked of Catholicism and especially the idea of a hierarchy where clergy were a better class of person than the laity.

So for example, Puritans really first start to emerge during the Vestments Controversy in the reign of Edward VI where Bishop Hooper got very mad that Anglican priests were wearing the cope and surplice, which he thought were Catholic ritual garments that sought to enhance priestly status and that went against the simplicity of the early Christian Church. Likewise, during the run-up to the English Civil War, the Puritans were extremely sensitive to the installation of altar rails which separated the congregation from the altar - they considered this to be once again a veneration of the clergy, but also a symbolic affirmation of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.

At the same time, they were not the only religious faction within the Anglican Church - and this is where the religious persecution thing kicks in, although it should be noted that this was a fairly brief but very emotionally intense period. Archbishop William Laud was a leading High Church Episcopalian who led a faction in the Church that would become known as Laudians, and he was just as intense about his religious views as the Puritans were about his. A favorite of Charles I and a first advocate of absolutist monarchy, Laud was appointed Archbishop of Canturbury in 1630 and acted quickly to impose religious uniformity of Laudian beliefs and practices - ultimately culminating in the disastrous decision to try imposing Episcopalianism on Scotland that set off the Bishop's Wars. The Puritans were a special target of Laud's wrath: in addition to ordering the clergy to do various things offensive to Puritans that he used as a shibboleth to root out clergy with Puritan sympathies and fire them from their positions in the Church, he established official religious censors who went after Puritan writers like William Prynne for seditious libel and tortured them for their criticisms of his actions, cropping their ears and branding them with the letters SL on their faces. Bringing together the powers of Church and State, Laud used the Court of Star Chamber (a royal criminal court with no system of due process) to go after anyone who he viewed as having Puritan sympathies, imposing sentences of judicial torture along the way.

It was here that the Puritans began to make their first connections to the growing democratic movement in England that was forming in opposition to Charles I, when John Liliburne the founder of the Levellers was targeted by Laud for importing religious texts that criticized Laudianism - Laud had him repeatedly flogged for challenging the constitutionality of the Star Chamber court, and "freeborn John" became a martyr-hero to the Puritans.

When the Long Parliament met in 1640, Puritans were elected in huge numbers, motivated as they were by a combination of resistance to the absolutist monarchism of Charles I and the religious policies of Archbishop Laud - who Parliament was able to impeach and imprison in the Tower of the London in 1641. This relatively brief period of official persecution that powerfully shaped the Puritan mindset was nevertheless disconnected from the phenomena of migration to New England - which had started a decade before Laud became Archbishop of Canterbury and continued decades after his impeachment.

The Puritans Just Wanted to Oppress Everyone Else's Religion:

This is the very short-hand Howard Zinn-esque critique we often see of the Puritan project in the discourse, and while there is a grain of truth to it - in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Congregational Church was the official state religion, no other church could be established without permission from the Congregational Church, all residents were required to pay taxes to support the Congregational Church, and only Puritans could vote. Moreover, there were several infamous incidents where the Puritan establishment put Anne Hutchinson on trial and banished her, expelled Roger Williams, and hanged Quakers.

Here's the thing, though: during the Early Modern period, every single side of every single religious conflict wanted to establish religious uniformity and oppress the heretics: the Catholics did it to the Protestants where they could mobilize the power of the Holy Roman Emperor against the Protestant Princes, the Protestants did it right back to the Catholics when Gustavus Adolphus' armies rolled through town, the Lutherans and the Catholics did it to the Calvinists, and everybody did it to the Anabaptists.

That New England was founded as a Calvinist colony is pretty unremarkable, in the final analysis. (By the by, both Hutchinson and Williams were devout if schismatic Puritans who were firmly of the belief that the Anglican Church was a false church.) What's more interesting is how quickly the whole religious project broke down and evolved into something completely different.

Essentially, New England became a bunch of little religious communes that were all tax-funded, which is even more the case because the Congregationalist Church was a "gathered church" where the full members of the Church (who were the only people allowed to vote on matters involving the church, and were the only ones who were allowed to be given baptism and Communion, which had all kinds of knock-on effects on important social practices like marriages and burials) and were made up of people who had experienced a conversion where they can gained an assurance of salvation that they were definitely of the Elect. You became a full member by publicly sharing your story of conversion (which had a certain cultural schema of steps that were supposed to be followed) and having the other full members accept it as genuine.

This is a system that works really well to bind together a bunch of people living in a commune in the wilderness into a tight-knit community, but it broke down almost immediately in the next generation, leading to a crisis called the Half-Way Covenant.

The problem was that the second generation of Puritans - all men and women who had been baptized and raised in the Congrgeationalist Church - weren't becoming converted. Either they never had the religious awakening that their parents had had, or their narratives weren't accepted as genuine by the first generation of commune members. This meant that they couldn't hold church office or vote, and more crucially it meant that they couldn't receive the sacrament or have their own children baptized.

This seemed to suggest that, within a generation, the Congregationalist Church would essentially define itself into non-existence and between the 1640s and 1650s leading ministers recommended that each congregation (which was supposed to decide on policy questions on a local basis, remember) adopt a policy whereby the children of baptized but unconverted members could be baptized as long as they did a ceremony where they affirmed the church covenant. This proved hugely controversial and ministers and laypeople alike started publishing pamphlets, and voting in opposing directions, and un-electing ministers who decided in the wrong direction, and ultimately it kind of broke the authority of the Congregationalist Church and led to its eventual dis-establishment.

The Puritans are the Reason America is So Evangelical:

This is another area where there's a grain of truth, but ultimately the real history is way more complicated.

Almost immediately from the founding of the colony, the Puritans begin to undergo mutation from their European counterparts - to begin with, while English Puritans were Calvinists and thus believed in a Presbyterian form of church government (indeed, a faction of Puritans during the English Civil War would attempt to impose a Presbyterian Church on England.), New England Puritans almost immediately adopted a congregationalist system where each town's faithful would sign a local religious constitution, elect their own ministers, and decide on local governance issues at town meetings.

This seemed to suggest that, within a generation, the Congregationalist Church would essentially define itself into non-existence and between the 1640s and 1650s leading ministers recommended that each congregation (which was supposed to decide on policy questions on a local basis, remember) adopt a policy whereby the children of baptized but unconverted members could be baptized as long as they did a ceremony where they affirmed the church covenant. This proved hugely controversial and ministers and laypeople alike started publishing pamphlets, and voting in opposing directions, and un-electing ministers who decided in the wrong direction, and accusing one another of being witches. (More on that in a bit.)

And then the Great Awakening - which to be fair, was a major evangelical effort by the Puritan Congregationalist Church, so it's not like there's no link between evangelical - which was supposed to promote Congregational piety ended up dividing the Church and pretty soon the Congregationalist Church is dis-established and it's safe to be a Quaker or even a Catholic on the streets of Boston.

But here's the thing - if we look at which denominations in the United States can draw a direct line from themselves to the Congregationalist Church of the Puritans, it's the modern Congregationalists who are entirely mainstream Protestants whose churches are pretty solidly liberal in their politics, the United Church of Christ which is extremely cultural liberal, and it's the Unitarian Universalists who are practically issued DSA memberships. (I say this with love as a fellow comrade.)

By contrast, modern evangelical Christianity (although there's a complicated distinction between evangelical and fundamentalist that I don't have time to get into) in the United States is made up of an entirely different set of denominations - here, we're talking Baptists, Pentacostalists, Methodists, non-denominational churches, and sometimes Presbyterians.

The Puritans Were Dour Killjoys Who Hated Sex:

This one owes a lot to Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter.

The reality is actually the opposite - for their time, the Puritans were a bunch of weird hippies. At a time when most major religious institutions tended to emphasize the sinful nature of sex and Catholicism in particular tended to emphasize the moral superiority of virginity, the Puritans stressed that sexual pleasure was a gift from God, that married couples had an obligation to not just have children but to get each other off, and both men and women could be taken to court and fined for failing to fulfill their maritial obligations.

The Puritans also didn't have much of a problem with pre-marital sex. As long as there was an absolute agreement that you were going to get married if and when someone ended up pregnant, Puritan elders were perfectly happy to let young people be young people. Indeed, despite the objection of Jonathan Edwards and others there was an (oddly similar to modern Scandinavian customs) old New England custom of "bundling," whereby a young couple would be put into bed together by their parents with a sack or bundle tied between them as a putative modesty shield, but where everyone involved knew that the young couple would remove the bundle as soon as the lights were turned out.

One of my favorite little social circumlocutions is that there was a custom of pretending that a child clearly born out of wedlock was actually just born prematurely to a bride who was clearly nine months along, leading to a rash of surprisingly large and healthy premature births being recorded in the diary of Puritan midwife Martha Ballard. Historians have even applied statistical modeling to show that about 30-40% of births in colonial America were pre-mature.

But what about non-sexual dourness? Well, here we have to understand that, while they were concerned about public morality, the Puritans were simultaneously very strict when it came to matters of religion and otherwise normal people who liked having fun. So if you go down the long list of things that Puritans banned that has landed them with a reputation as a bunch of killjoys, they usually hide some sort of religious motivation.

So for example, let's take the Puritan iconoclastic tendency to smash stained glass windows, whitewash church walls, and smash church organs during the English Civil War - all of these things have to do with a rejection of Catholicism, and in the case of church organs a belief that the only kind of music that should be allowed in church is the congregation singing psalms as an expression of social equality. At the same time, Puritans enjoyed art in a secular context and often had portraits of themselves made and paintings hung on their walls, and they owned musical instruments in their homes.

What about the wearing nothing but black clothing? See, in our time wearing nothing but black is considered rather staid (or Goth), but in the Early Modern period the dyes that were needed to produce pure black cloth were incredibly expensive - so wearing all black was a sign of status and wealth, hence why the Hapsburgs started emphasizing wearing all-black in the same period. However, your ordinary Puritan couldn't afford an all-black attire and would have worn quite colorful (but much cheaper) browns and blues and greens.

What about booze and gambling and sports and the theater and other sinful pursuits? Well, the Puritans were mostly ok with booze - every New England village had its tavern - but they did regulate how much they could serve, again because they were worried that drunkenness would lead to blasphemy. Likewise, the Puritans were mostly ok with gambling, and they didn't mind people playing sports - except that they went absolutely beserk about drinking, gambling, and sports if they happened on the Sabbath because the Puritans really cared about the Sabbath and Charles I had a habit of poking them about that issue. They were against the theater because of its association with prostitution and cross-dressing, though, I can't deny that. On the other hand, the Puritans were also morally opposed to bloodsports like bear-baiting, cock-fighting, and bare-knuckle boxing because of the violence it did to God's creatures, which I guess makes them some of the first animal rights activsts?

They Banned Christmas:

Again, this comes down to a religious thing, not a hatred of presents and trees - keep in mind that the whole presents-and-trees paradigm of Christmas didn't really exist until the 19th century and Dickens' Christmas Carol, so what we're really talking about here is a conflict over religious holidays - so what people were complaining about was not going to church an extra day in the year. I don't get it, personally.

See, the thing is that Puritans were known for being extremely close Bible readers, and one of the things that you discover almost immediately if you even cursorily read the New Testament is that Christ was clearly not born on December 25th. Which meant that the whole December 25th thing was a false religious holiday, which is why they banned it.

The Puritans Were Democrats:

One thing that I don't think Puritans get enough credit for is that, at a time when pretty much the whole of European society was some form of monarchist, the Puritans were some of the few people out there who really committed themselves to democratic principles.

As I've already said, this process starts when John Liliburne, an activist and pamphleteer who promoted the concept of universal human rights (what he called "freeborn rights"), took up the anti-Laudian cause and it continued through the mobilization of large numbers of Puritans to campaign for election to the Long Parliament.

There, not only did the Puritans vote to revenge themselves on their old enemy William Laud, but they also took part in a gradual process of Parliamentary radicalization, starting with the impeachment of Strafford as the architect of arbitrary rule, the passage of the Triennal Acts, the re-statement that non-Parliamentary taxation was illegal, the Grand Remonstrance, and the Militia Ordinance.

Then over the course of the war, Puritans served with distinction in the Parliamentary army, especially and disproportionately in the New Model Army where they beat the living hell out of the aristocratic armies of Charles I, while defying both the expectations and active interference of the House of Lords.

At this point, I should mention that during this period the Puritans divided into two main factions - Presbyterians, who developed a close political and religious alliance with the Scottish Covenanters who had secured the Presbyterian Church in Scotland during the Bishops' Wars and who were quite interested in extending an established Presbyterian Church; and Independents, who advocated local congregationalism (sound familiar) and opposed the concept of established churches.

Finally, we have the coming together of the Independents of the New Model Army and the Leveller movement - during the war, John Liliburne had served with bravery and distinction at Edgehill and Marston Moore, and personally capturing Tickhill Castle without firing a shot. His fellow Leveller Thomas Rainsborough proved a decisive cavalry commander at Naseby, Leicester, the Western Campaign, and Langport, a gifted siege commander at Bridgwater, Bristol, Berkeley Castle, Oxford, and Worcester. Thus, when it came time to hold the Putney Debates, the Independent/Leveller bloc had both credibility within the New Model Army and the only political program out there. Their proposal:

redistricting of Parliament on the basis of equal population; i.e one man, one vote.

the election of a Parliament every two years.

freedom of conscience.

equality under the law.

In the context of the 17th century, this was dangerously radical stuff and it prompted Cromwell and Fairfax into paroxyms of fear that the propertied were in danger of being swamped by democratic enthusiasm - leading to the imprisonment of Lilburne and the other Leveller leaders and ultimately the violent suppression of the Leveller rank-and-file.

As for Cromwell, well - even the Quakers produced Richard Nixon.

#history #puritans #calvinism #english civil war #oliver cromwell #the stupid meme about christmas #new england #protestantism

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dual1pa · 4 months

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the tribute

Warnings: THIS IS SAD, talks about Eddie's death, death in general, quick snippet of eddie dying, crying, trauma, eddie's gf's speech at his funeral, talking about seeing someone die

eddie munson's girlfriend at his funeral

SPOILER ALERT

She sat with her arms folded together while sitting near the front of the church, at times she picked off the black polish that was chipping off her nails.

She was sure her eyes were red from all the crying she had done for the last few days.

Seeing the love of her life, the person she thought she'd marry one day. (She knew this cause they talked about it constantly)

"You and I are gonna get hitched one day, babe, I know it," he said while driving with the windows down, breathing in the warm summer air.

She could cry just thinking about it.

She was there when Eddie died. She couldn't describe the pain she felt, like she was being stabbed over and over again by an invisible knife.

She continued to kiss his forehead and repeated that everything was going to be alright - but they both knew it wouldn't be.

He wanted the last thing he saw to be her, and it was.

She didn't want to be there - but probably not for the same reason everyone else didn't want to be there - she didn't even think the priest wanted to be there.

Of course, there weren't many, but a few of Eddie's family showed up to mourn the loss.

Most people thought Eddie was a monster, that he was the one who murdered Chrissy - he didn't - it was some monster from another world.

But who could she explain that to? No one listened... or cared.

The only people that knew the truth were seated next to her or behind her.

She sat next to his uncle in the front row, who encouraged her to sit with him, he told her she was family.

When it was her turn, she gently got up from her feet and walked up the stairs, looking at Eddie's casket and a huge picture of the man she loved and tried not to cry.

She looked around at the looks on everyone's faces, her best friends, Nancy and Robin gave her supporting smiles all while Dustin, the kid Eddie was closest to the most, wiped a tear from his eye.

"Uh, hi everyone. I know most of you know who I am but for the past two years, I am, uh was, Eddie's girlfriend. We met when I was a sophomore and he was a junior. It was like we clicked instantly, even though we had different tastes in music, movies, and celebrities, we just... connected. Most people knew Eddaie as Eddie 'The Freak' Munson, but I knew him as Eds. I was the only one that could call him that though, someone in his club, excuse my language father, The Hellfire Club, heard me call Eddie Eds, so he said it and was almost punched in the face. 'My girl can only call me Eds' he said to him. It almost made me laugh so hard that I fell out of my chair."

She had to stop herself from crying, even though she couldn't help it.

She quickly wiped a tear away and continued, "I know most of you think my boyfriend is a monster. he is nothing of the sort. i get faces everywhere I go in this town and I hear what people say about me, 'the monster's girlfriend' and all that. It's not true, if some of you got to know him on a personal level, you would know that. But I didn't come here to convince you anything - I'm here to tell you about my Eds. eddie died a hero, he was looking out for his friends, his family, me, and the world from the unexplainable, the reality no one wants to listen to."

She took a deep breath and read her next sentence, "When Eddie died, I saw it. I wouldn't wish witnessing the death of a loved one on anyone. it's vile, cruel, and not to mention traumatizing. there's no right words on how to explain how i felt watching him die. the man i knew i was going to marry one day."

She grabbed the front of the podium and shielded her face from the crowd so one could see her sobbing, except the priest of course.

He got up and asked her if she wanted to take a break and he would finish what was on her paper.

"No, no. I'm okay. I want to read this," she said.

"Sorry. Uh, yeah, if he would have proposed to me before we finished high school I would have said yes. He made me laugh, cry, angry, happy, heard, and just made me feel special. He stood up for me, he held me when i failed a test that i studied so hard for, made me laugh with his dumb jokes. When I introduced my family, at first they were pretty skeptical of the way he dressed or how he styled his hair, but he eventually won them over and they wanted him over for dinner as much as possible. I'm going to miss all those things about him, I'm going to miss his touch, his laugh, his smile, his kisses."

She looked over to his picture and finished her speech, "I'll miss you my Eds. Rest easy, baby."

She folded up the crumbled-up piece of paper and went back to her seat.

She felt many hands on her back and hand as she got through one of the hardest things she'd ever done.

#eddie munson #my writings #my writing #stranger things #stranger things 4 #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson smut #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson imagine

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starboysbrainrot · 9 months

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thoughts and headcanons about what happened to the og mystery incorporated after they left Crystal Cove

[ to clarify the situation, in my hc they all have loving parents (with the exception of Ricky and Brad’s fathers), that weren’t perfect and had some issues (ex : Judy’s dad has trouble showing that he cares about his kids, Cassidy’s parents who can be overprotective etc)

so yes, leaving them was absolutely horrible for the kids ]

The gang : they stayed together a few weeks after leaving Crystal Cove, sleeping in motels or in the Enigma Machine. But after one big fight they separated. I think they couldn’t stay together because of how hurt they all were and because they were lost and didn’t know how to react to what happened. (a bit like mystery incorporated at the end of season 1)

Cassidy : I think that Cassidy would be the one to suffer the most, because of how much she loves and cares about her family. So when she leaves Crystal Cove, I think there’s immediately something that changed in herself and in her relationship with her friends, especially Ricky. I do believe that they broke up relatively quickly after leaving the town. She felt numb and not capable of loving after what she went through, and needed to start a new life (ex : she changed her name)

Ricky : after his breakup with Cassidy, he completely disappeared and came back to Crystal Cove 5 years after leaving the town, to start Destroido. I see him missing his parents in the beginning, but also simply giving up on that feeling after a few years (the one he’s really missing (and he doesn’t want to admit it) is Pericles, even after what happened). His parents were the first to leave the town after their son’s disappearance. But he definitely tried to contact his mom a few times, before completely giving up.

Brad & Judy : Brad definitely blames himself for what happened in the church and later on in the cave. As the leader of mystery incorporated, he blames himself for bringing them there in the first place, and wanting to investigate. Regret turned into anger and bitterness over time, and was a reason for their fight after leaving the town. Judy definitely missed her family a lot and never recovered from loosing them.

Now regarding what happened with Fred, here’s what I think happened :

Something that always intrigued me is that Brad came to Crystal Cove with Fred alone. Mayor Jones specifically stated that Judy wasn’t there and that’s something very interesting. My hypothesis is that they clearly didn’t planed on having a kid two years after leaving Crystal Cove, since they were hella young and surely didn’t had the money to take care of a kid. Brad then took Fred to the only place where someone could possibly help them, Crystal Cove, where both of their family lived, in a desperate way of asking their parents for help (maybe for money, or simply advice on how to raise up a kid). But once he got there, he realised that both of their families left Crystal Cove. At that moment I can imagine that he felt some kind of mixed feelings, like a mix of sadness and betrayal.

At the same time, the freak realised that Brad is back in town, he panicked and tried to find a way to make him leave the town. And the only idea he had to make that happen (since both of their families already left the town and can’t be use to blackmail them) is taking Fred. We know that after that Jones decides to raise up Fred and the rest is history.

I think that such an event definitely traumatised both of them (and specifically Brad since he’s the one that brought Fred with him to Crystal Cove, blaming himself even more), and that they never healed from that. Explaining why they are acting so weird as adults later on. Brad and Judy only had each other to get trough life and they knew that as long as they stayed together, they could make it. And because the idea of loosing another person they loved after loosing their families, their friends and their son was surely terrifying.

(again, that’s before they all come back in Crystal Cove, before the curse takes the best away from them etc etc… just a bunch of hc I have about happened before the main story :))

Side note : I would give anything just to have Jones as Fred’s godfather in the pre nibiru timeline, and I mean ANYTHING. He could have been a positive influence in the og gang’s life and he therefore in Brad and Judy’s life. MAKING HIM A PART OF FRED’S LIFE WAS STILL POSSIBLE. (yes I’m a big fan of the Brad-Judy-Jones dynamic)

#scooby doo mystery incorporated #scooby doo #sdmi #ricky owens #brad chiles #judy reeves #cassidy williams #professor pericles #mister e #angel dynamite #mayor jones #fred jones sr #i talk too much #these are super depressing hc sorry #headcanon #Scooby doo headcanons

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houseofbrat · 3 months

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So, what’s your honest opinion of the full #picturegate drama?

I’ve seen many people believing that KP used The PoW as scapegoat and she doesn’t did the photoshop. But what are your thoughts? In case some are correct, why do you think they are blaming Kate? Why not blame the ‘real’ responsible (some suggested it’s her staff)

As we have discussed, their PR team is awful, but this new nonsense takes the cake

The situation leading up to the "photo kill" I've already described here:

That basically summarizes the situation leading up to the photo and its very public dismissal.

2. One of the other problems is the staff they have working for them. Clearly the KP communications department is not up to par. It should have been the communications head/chief taking the blame for this instead of Kate. Instead, he thought that a statement from Kate would quell the drama, when all it did was pour more gasoline on the fire.

So Kate can take the blame for the photo but couldn't make any comments about any messages she received from well wishers in the previous weeks? WTF?!

But then there's KP spokesperson giving statements to People magazine today!

A palace insider downplayed the PR crisis, telling PEOPLE exclusively that although the situation is a "bump in the road, it's not an earthquake." "[Kate] has apologized and graciously so," the insider says. "She has done something that 99% of us do — and we don’t have the scrutiny that they do." "Think of the level of scrutiny of pictures of her, as people pore over them," the insider continues. "You’re always on display and always got to be perfect." The insider adds, "She might be a member of the royal family, but she’s also a human being. If you've just had an operation, you want to look your best with the first photograph that’s published for the outside world."

I'm sorry but why is this person still in the employ of Kensington Palace and why are they speaking to People magazine? "We don't have the scrutiny that they do." FUCKING DUH!! That's why all sorts of people who don't pay attention to the BRF are like, "What the actual fuck is going on over there right now???"

So the KP comms people are continuing to dig the hole they are in. They haven't stopped digging and are unlikely to do so as long as they are calling up People magazine to give them exclusives on their professional fuckups!

3. Guess who hired and continues to employ the professional fuckup?

William!

William is an emotionally damaged, thin skinned, control freak with a privacy fetish. And William found his perfect YES MAN to accede to his control freak nature and his unhealthy demand for privacy with Lee Thompson.

YES MAN + Control Freak - connection to reality = the mess we have today

And the mess we have today continues to roll on. And will continue to roll on. Just as it has since he was hired in 2022...

There was the fuckup at Boston in 2022 when William issued a statement throwing his godmother under the bus when all he had to say was "This is an issue for Buckingham Palace." Except he didn't.

There was the bizarre photo op of Andrew being driven to church by William last August (2023), when everyone with a working, long-term memory knows that William has never kowtowed to his father.

Kate's stretch of wearing thirteen pantsuits in a row, 'cause she was all about "the work." Somehow, she didn't go on a crusade about wearing pantsuits when she was only The Duchess of Cambridge.

Announcing Kate had "planned abdominal surgery" the day after said planned abdominal surgery. If it was "planned," then wouldn't they have said something at least the day of rather than the day after?

Then there's the timeline of fuckery that's happened from Christmas until 09 March 2024 that I collated before The 2024 Mother's Day Photo Disaster.

And it's going to keep going on and on because the root of the problem is William!

4. Then there's The Princess of Wales, aka Kate or Catherine. She is the woman with likely more sense than either Lee or William put together. Do those two fuckups listen to her? Doubtful. Did they listen to any concerns or feedback she gave these two last summer? Or fall/autumn? Also doubtful.

So there's a woman who is a globally known public figure that does not have an easy way out of the mess the two men created, and also she may share some of the blame for decisions made last summer and fall?

And it's a very depressing situation being trapped with a husband who won't listen to you and takes you for granted, yet your husband will listen to the YES MAN at his employ. Because the husband is a emotionally damaged, thin skinned, control freak with a privacy fetish.

A very depressing situation when she knows that her reputation of twenty plus years in the public eye is about to go down the drain as a result of the choices these two men have made. (And no, I'm not talking about the Mother's Day photo.) Gee, what kind of situation could that lead to over the holidays?

5. Then you have Charles, Camilla, and the officials working at Buckingham Palace.

They know about all the communications problems taking place at KP since last summer. Oh, they know. BELIEVE ME. They know.

Charles is someone who believes people should learn from their mistakes and isn't going to interfere in his sons' lives and mistakes. Charles resented his parents interfering in his dating life long before he ever dated or married Diana. (Sabrina Guinness, anyone?) He also resented them interfering in his marriage to Diana.

Basically, Charles won't do what one of my friends from college did: write about her college roommate's pregnancy and due date in a Christmas letter. Yup. Charles isn't that man.

So, yes, BP's communication and pr about Charles's BPH treatment and cancer treatment veers toward being over the top. They have been very transparent with the press for a reason. They know there is a metaphorical nuclear bomb about to go off due to KP's lack of transparency and accountability to the UK public. The monarchy cannot be seen as complicit in it. It is KP's problem. Always has been a KP problem.

This is why Queen Camilla made so many visits to the front entrance of The London Clinic. Transparency. Proper communication with the UK public. The public can trust that The Crown is being honest with them. Kensington Palace clearly not so much.

It's why King Charles has been photographed doing mundane things such as greeting cards and going to church.

And yes, BP communications team is undoubtedly shading the KP comms team when King Charles got photographed in a car at Windsor last week, four days after Kate's pap shot with her mother.

So yeah, we're about to get the biggest scandal since the 90s when Diana died or the War of the Waleses. Pick your throwback reference. Get your popcorn. Because it is going to be that bad.

And the reputations of Will & Kate will never be the same.

Ever.

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wordy-little-witch · 10 days

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So weird thing in my head here, but the beetlejuice musical has INSPIRED me so have my weird discombobulated ideas

• Buggy as half demon, but he's largely human-presenting. Only things that could possibly clue you in are the fangs, pointed ears, nails, pupils and nose - but luckily he just passes as a weird ass clown and diva.

• mood ring hair my beloved. Or mood ring eyes. Just. Smth colored on a body that changes around with emotions, and I have a weird soft spot for it.

• he has horns and a tail - kinda, at least. He HAD a tail, but the situation leading up to him being taken in by the Rogers resulted in a loss of those. His horns are hidden away usually by charms or magic.

• SPEAKING OF MAGIC - comedic instances of hammerspace. He uses that and a mix of sleight-of-hand tricks to pull the most random yet thematically appropriate things from freaking nowhere. Nobody knows how he does it except maybe Shanks who helped him figure it out when they were kids.

• Committed To The Bit - but in both a good AND bad way. Buggy's the type of demon to feed on hedonistic tendencies, not a specific sin. It literally boils down to People Enjoying Themselves, preferably in excess but normal amounts are fine too. He thinks himself so sneaky and schiesty by ensuring his crew and people are happy and taken care of. "I'm going to enforce everyone to do self care because I'm so evil mwahaha-" type of deal.

• his Devil Fruit is fucking WEIRD because he's half demon but he also hasn't Realized That Yet.

• sea water is effectively holy water. It doesn't burn him or cause wounds, but he does get a rash and breaks out in hives. It's annoying. He copes.

• his metabolism is frankly HORRIFYING but he doesn't clock that. Fun fact, Ds are usually Otherworldly Beings too so Roger and Buggy just gave little nods of acknowledgment before eating the ship out of house and home. Buggy is not like.... genetically a D by actual blood ties, but Roger declared he was a D anyway. Buggy D. Clown, he'd joke, spinning his tiniest cabin brat around with a grin. The name stuck.

• There are certain herbs that can make him sick, stuff like angelica root in any forms, myrrh, argue root at any maturity, and he's got a mild allergy to garlic. It's hilarious, too, because there's no actual correlation of being of demonic descent and having an issue with those herbs despite what so many people believe, Buggy's just out there living an accidental cliché

• oh and on the cliches topic, he does not like churches or "hallowed ground". Not because of some supernatural element, he just finds it boring.

• he does not broadcast his heritage, but he will disclose it to trusted individuals - until he has reason to capitalize on it.

#demon buggy #demon au #teehee #buggy the clown

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viaviv124 · 1 month

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Are You Satisfied Lyric write-up (Unity AU)

I was pulling out my hair

- Nanda clawing at their wool in the carriage

The day I got the deal,

- back in the mornig Ratau telling them about the engagement and that they should get ready to leave

chemically calm

- Nanda's face shows not much emotion

Was I meant to feel happy that my life

- back in the carriage, Nanda looks at the white robes they have to put on

Was just about to change?

- they look outside as the scene fades out

One life pretending to be the cat who got the cream

- at the first meeting, Nanda rising from their bow and widening their eyes slightly at the sight of Narinder

Oh, everybody said, "Marina Leader is a dreamer"

- some people from their church (esp corey tho) saying that smiling

People like to tell you what you're gonna be

- First night in their new room they sit on their bed with their knees to their chest, hiding their face

It's not my problem if you don't see what I see

- Nanda arguing with Narinder, they look pissed

And I do not give a damn if you don't believe

- Still arguing but sarcastic smile

My problem, it's my problem

- they do the angry Finger-chest-poking thing on Narinder

That I never am happy

- just more pissed nanda yelling, Narinder widening his eyes ever so slightly

It's my problem, it's my problem

- they turn away to leave

On how fast I will succeed

- they walk away without looking back, Narinder looks after them

High achiever, don't you see?

- fancy scene switch by nanda walking and their fleece working as a sort of curtain

Baby, nothing comes for free

- they're sitting at a desk, each word adds a higher pile of Papers and a candle buring down lower . On "free" the candle is all burned down, there are high piles of Papers and they just lay on their desk

They say I'm a control freak

- Nanda walking past some people whispering gossip

Driven by a greed to succeed

- a fabricated Version of nanda (a completely Black shadow thing aside from their clothes and a big, white grin) climbing on Narinders lap and seducing Narinder

Nobody can stop me

- the Real nanda keeps walking with a determined gaze

'Cause it's my problem if I want to pack up and run away

- they throw a book againist a wall in their room

It's my business if I feel the need to smoke and drink and sway

- nanda getting drunk in their room, each beat in the Melodie adding more empty bottles on the floor

It's my problem, it's my problem if I feel the need to hide

- drunk nanda goes to Narinder, hiding within his embrace

And it's my problem if I have no friends and feel I want to die

- tears run down their face as they hold onto Narinder tightly

Are you satisfied with an average life?

- (still drunk and sad) Nanda on Narinders lap, looking up at him

Do I need to lie to make my way in life?

- they take his hand and put it on their chest where their heart is

Are you satisfied with an easy ride?

- they turn to the side, hiding their face against Narinders torso once more

Once you cross the line, will you be satisfied?

- they hold tightly onto his hand and his clothes

Are you satisfied - Marina

I have no idea if this will be canon or not, but it does fit lol.

Here's what i roughly mean with shadow (except the clothes still have their original color. I was just lazy lol)

This is basically the public view from the people of Nanda. Because they're just a commoner, despite their feats, people are convinced they just seduced Narinder for power since the people dont know how or why they're engaged in the first place.

#Cotl #Cotl lamb #Cotl AU #cotl unity au #Cult of the Lamb

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apomaro-mellow · 1 year

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Demon!Steve & church sex

The devil walked into Hawkins one day and he wore blue jeans and an even bluer shirt. And he seemed intent of taking Eddie’s soul all for himself.

Eddie saw him for the first time on a Sunday. Eddie was across the parking lot, counting bills in the back of his van as he waited for Jeff to be done with church so they could get on with their day. As the congregation dismissed, out walked the newest talk of the town, Steve Harrington. As he shook hands with some of the other members as they walked out, the noon-time sun glowed atop him, as if God himself was giving his shiniest golden boy the most perfect halo.

It was at that moment Eddie decided to have nothing to do with him.

So how did it end up like this?

If Eddie was the sort of astute person to look back and reflect on his choices, he might’ve figured out the past three months had been a strange courtship between himself and a church boy. Of going from ‘there’s no way he’s flirting with me’ to ‘there’s no way he’s doing it on purpose’ to ‘holy shit is church boy in the closet?’

Those were thoughts he had before this moment. Not now. Not when said boy’s tongue was down his throat and he was grinding deliciously into Eddie’s lap in one of the pews.

“It’s a Saturday, so no one will be here until the evening service”, Steve had said earlier when he pulled Eddie inside.

There was definitely an insane part of him that thought he might burn up the second he touched holy ground. But the flames didn’t start until Steve started to kiss him and even then it was an internal burning.

Eddie’s hands were on his hips, guiding his movements as they both threatened to soil their pants and if this was the sorta thing Steve’s god looked down on, he was ready to get struck by lightning so long as he got off first.

He bit Steve’s lip and the other let out a small whimper and pressed even closer to him.

“Shit baby, you that desperate for me?”

“I’ve had my eye on you since I got into town”, Steve confessed, hands running down Eddie’s chest.

“Really? Well don’t I feel honored? Lil Church Boy gonna fall from grace to be with me?”

Then Steve smirked. “You see me like that too, huh?”

Eddie raised a brow. “Should I not? I see you coming out of this place every Sunday.”

Steve’s hands slowly sunk into Eddie’s hair, reaching up to his scalp. “What if I wasn’t that good and holy?”

“What if?”, Eddie chuckled. He was pretty sure anyone who could get hard in god’s house couldn’t be all that innocent.

“I’m saying what if I wasn’t a servant of God? But of someone else?” Steve had paused in his grinding while he talked but he started up again, slower now as he looked into Eddie’s eyes.

Eddie’s hands went from his hips to his ass to make him move faster and harder. Steve moaned his name and leaned in to kiss him again. This time Steve bit his lip, enough to draw blood. When he pulled back he licked his lips and Eddie saw that there were fangs in his mouth now.

“What...what are you?”

“I’ve already told you.”

“Shit...” Eddie breathed out as Steve dove in to leave marks against his neck. He could feel more than see the horns growing on his head. A clawed hand scratched lightly at his chest. “I guess a normal person would have second thoughts about this.”

Steve hummed. “But you’re not normal, are you? You’re the town freak.”

“Is that why you chose me?”

At that, Steve pulled back and looked at him with the kind of vulnerability he didn’t expect from a demon. Like this was an actual human coming out to someone they cared about.

“Eddie Munson. I was made for you. For me it was not a choice, or even a question. It was always going to be you.”

Eddie’s eyes glanced at the figure of Jesus on the cross.

Steve held his face in his hands. “And what has he done for you? Except ignore everything you’ve ever endured?” His hand raked across Eddie’s chest again and then slipped into his pants. “My master has great plans for you Eddie. A fate that is worthy of you.”

Was this what insanity felt like? Because tripping on a banana peel and hitting his head was the only explanation for the current situation. Steve had been the sweetest temptation. Someone Eddie had wanted with his entire being but knew he could never have. Knew he could never even touch. Not only was he touching and being touched, but something about great plans? For him? The idea was intoxicating, even if he didn’t believe it. He could let himself for a moment though, couldn’t he?

Then Steve was sliding down until he was kneeling down in front of him. He had released his cock and was staring at it like that was the holiest thing in the room right now. When Steve started to suck him down, Eddie felt like he understood worship for the first time in his life. This little devil, his own personal devil if Steve was to be believed, looked positively enraptured with every taste he got.

Eddie let his head fall back. It was hard for his brain to keep up when Steve’s tongue was swirling and he let out small sounds that were echoing in the empty church. Blindly, he reached out to grip Steve’s hair, fingers brushing the ridges on his horns.

A demon.

He was getting a blowjob from a demon.

He had talked about a master earlier. If all this devil and angel stuff was real then-

“What’s your master want from me anyway?”

Steve took a moment to answer. And even when he pulled off to speak, he gave Eddie’s dick a few kisses and licks, like he couldn’t get enough.

“When the time comes, you will be his general as he wages his war on this world.” Steve was still stroking his cock. “When you give your soul over, it will be set.”

“And what do I get?”

“Power, respect.” Then the little minx gave him a meaningful look. “Me.”

Eddie let out a shudder of a breath. He couldn’t even pretend to not be affected. But he still had questions. And Munsons didn’t sign anything without reading the fine print. Not even Steve humping his leg would distract him. It just made him slow to reply.

“What happens if I refuse?”

“Then I will disappear. And it will be as if I never existed.”

It’d be hard to forget the erection pressed on him right now. “Wh...what happens to you?”

“I just told you.” Steve played with the tip of his cock. “Without you, I have no role to play. No use for my master. But if you accept, you will be my master.”

Eddie stood up suddenly and pushed Steve to the ground. Fuck everything, he really was custom made for him. He relieved Steve of his shirt as they kissed and rubbed himself off on his jeans. Those needed to go too. His hands went to his ass again when he felt a strange bump.

“What’s that?”

“I think you know”, Steve grinned.

“Go to the altar and show your master.”

Steve moved and bent slightly as he pushed his pants down, a tail revealing itself. “Look at you...” Eddie said as he walked over. He pushed Steve to bend even more until his cheek touched the tablecloth covering the altar. Steve preened when he felt Eddie curl the end of his tail around his finger, reveling at finally being touched the way he was supposed to. Temptation was hard on the tempter as well. Months of trying to lure this man to his destiny. And finally, he had taken the bait.

Steve moaned out loud when he felt a tongue go inside of him and he pushed back, hungry for more. When he had come into being, he had been given a vision of the creature Eddie would become. Coming to the realm of humans had been difficult because all he had wanted to do was pounce Eddie and give himself to this man. To spread and offer his body to the one he would call master.

Just as his eyes were rolling back and he was getting close, that tongue retreated and he let out a whine. But then Eddie turned him around and lifted him onto the altar.

“You’re really going to be mine?”, he asked.

Surprisingly, Steve found that he was a little short of breath. This was really happening. He wrapped his legs around Eddie’s waist and pulled them flush together. “I’m already yours.”

The irony of fucking someone on the altar wasn’t lost on Eddie. Actually, he was getting off to it. Even without the whole demon element to it, he was sliding his dick into the prettiest boy in Hawkins and after this, no one else would be able to have him.

Steve had been told that when a contract was sealed, he would get a vision of the fate that had been decided. He had expected to see Eddie, standing over mountains of corpses, ripping apart his enemies, defiling angels, and setting the world ablaze.

But all he saw as he clung to the man thrusting in him was Eddie, Eddie, Eddie.

“Eddie”, he moaned out in a breathy voice, claws tearing lightly into the worn vest he wore.

“I gotchu baby.”

Steve didn’t know what that vision meant but he knew in his heart it would come to fruition. He wanted it to. He clenched around Eddie, making him curse under his breath.

If Eddie had doubted the made-to-order thing, this proved it. He’d fucked other guys before but it literally felt like Steve’s body had been crafted to fit around his cock. Everything about him was Eddie’s wettest dream. From the hair on his chest to the moles that dotted his body and invited Eddie to count each one with his mouth, Steve was perfect. And he was his.

“Mine”, he growled into Steve’s skin.

“Yours”, Steve said as he pulled at Eddie’s hair. He let out a cry when he felt him cum inside of him, completely claiming him.

Eddie felt Steve’s own cum like a brand on his skin and knew he belonged to this devil just as much. And if that meant he became a ravager of worlds then so be it.

@intergalactic-president-awesome

#apo writes #stranger things #steddie #fanfiction #eddie does in fact get demonic powers #but then decides fuck all that and rebels #and takes steve with him

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ruewrote · 1 year

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𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒, 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒, 𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠.

PAIRING: pope heyward x fem!reader WARNINGS: no season 3 spoilers!! strong language GENRE: angst to fluff SONG INSPIRATION: look after you by the fray WORD COUNT: 1k

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as soon as you stepped foot in front of the run-down church you had a bad feeling in the bottom of your stomach, something was eating at you in the back of your mind.

being brought back to reality as pope brushed past you, running straight into the church, everyone following him, you included.

"okay everyone spread out," kie announced.

you were searching anywhere and everywhere, the five of you losing hope after looking for about five minutes, sitting down on the old pews.

"it's gotta be in here!" pope panicked as he ran his hands against the walls.

"i can't see where they would hide a giant cross here." jj and kie were still looking around for clues, as you and john b watched pope freak out.

"no, no there's no way he would set us up on a freaking goose chase, that would lead us to nothing."

he gave up and sat down on the seat beside you, sighing. looking through the telescope one last time, and stopping when he sees something. following to where he landed, bam! two wooden diagonal beams shaped as crosses facing away from each other.

"what?" that's when kiera saw it, then jj, and then the rest. "oh my god, look at that."

pushing your hair out of your face when you saw pope go over to the wall, he started climbing up the cracks of the wood.

you and the others stood, warning him to be careful. flinching when bits of debris would fall as he jumped over to the wooden beam.

"pope that's rotten, be careful!"

your bottom lip now red and swollen from anxiously biting onto it, hands on your hips, foot slightly tapping against the floor as he slid through each slot.

that's when you heard jj warn him about the large wasp nest above him, a piece of something falling down as he shifted himself, realizing that the next part was hollow, sarah ran to go and get a crowbar.

it took a while but everything was hacked away from its place, lo and behold there was the gold cross, and everyone started cheering and hugging each other.

"he did it..." you whispered underneath your breath, hand covering your mouth, he was so proud of himself. his victory was short-lived when the warps started to sting him, dropping the crowbar out of his hands, it clattered onto the floor.

he slipped. your breath getting caught in the back of your throat, running to grab as many cushions as you could find, throwing them on the ground beneath him. everyone worriedly joined in.

your eyes watered as you looked up at him, his grip loosened and fell onto the pillows with a thump. groaning at the not-so-soft landing.

then the fucking cross decided to fall from the sky, everyone moved away, and you pulled pope out of the way. "you okay?" they moved back over again.

"just give me, like, one second to, catch my breath." rubbing his back as everyone examined the cross, well everyone except you. jj blabbering on about how much you think it's worth, you whilst you were still accessing his injuries. his eyes swollen shut, his breaths short, "guys we need to go, we need to get him to help." you announced, grabbing one of popes arms whilst john b grasped the other.

"the cross..." the boy muttered, "we'll come back for it, jj cover it please!" not looking back trying to get him to kie's truck as fast as possible.

yanking the door open watching the panicked scene unravel in front of you, loud ringing and echoed shouts were heard from all around you as you jumped in next to him. you all packed into the vehicle and got out of there.

he now laid his head onto your shoulder, his breaths now coming out wheezy. "you'll be okay, you're safe. just hold on pope, please." you breathed out, leaning him back towards it.

not noticing how the others were looking at you, not caring as long as he was okay.

you stayed outside as everyone invaded rickys home, searching for any type of help. your chest tightened as they laid him out across the table.

your breaths became smaller and smaller until you were hyperventilating. hand on your chest as you tried to calm yourself down. this was no time to be having a panic attack.

you didn't tell him yet.

what if you lose him?

he'll never know how you truly really feel about him.

sitting on the bench on the porch of the house, trying to think of anything but the worst scenario when pope bursts out of the front door, running around laughing.

talking about what they needed to do, or what to do next. just seeing him actually be okay flooded you with such relief. the tightness in your chest leaving. breathing was easier.

sarah walked over to you, rubbing your back asking if you were okay, and you just nodded smiling, looking over at the boy who was still continuously running loops around the front lawn with jj running behind him.

bonus:

you and the girls were sat around the fire that you had created, drinking, laughing about everything and nothing. just being happy to be home safe.

"she was totally freaking when you got stung dude." john b nudged pope with his elbow, furrowing his eyebrows he turned to him.

"who?"

"i mean we all were, but you should've see the way that she looked at you after you fell bro. she wouldn't leave your side, well not 'til we got you to rickys."

pope looked over to you giggling at something kiera said, watching as your hair blew behind you as the breeze brushed by you. the orange of the fire light flickering across your face.

you glanced over in his direction locking eyes with him, offering a shy smile before turning back to sarah.

when her eyes are on me, i feel like something worth seeing.

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marabarl-and-marlbara · 6 months

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my notes from todays sermon, at church -- even though my sabbath were yesterday; it:s mostly notes on some verses in proverbs i liked, and a few pages of a warhammer 40k night lord fanfiction i need to transcribe later (or forget about and leave unfinished); i said as much on my twitter, but the connectivity freaks me out to-where i can:t figure out if there is malicious reading going on, over my thoughts, and how it recontextualizes itself outward and becomes part of the "funny game" being played through the actors in the church; part of the "funny game" being played is awareness of the game: say it to who? there is no one in the crowd except actors in the funny game; makes me think of "i make art for myself" types, yet so uncomfortable with it being truly for-self that it is brought outside-self in-to material where other can observe; willing disbelief and boredom; am i being scanned? does it matter if i am and am aware? is it the loneliness that bothers me? what would warhammer 40k night haunter think of that? etcetera;

mostly i wanted an excuse to post about two articles i wrote this month (cause i don:t share much over here sans my asks, since i haven:t really wanted to draw lately); this first one is about disconnection and spiritual dead-beats, and this second one is about diet and eating disorders.

#faith

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queenpiranhadon · 7 months

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Just gonna vent a bit

This past week has been extremely stressful and I’m just done.

I’m a theatre kid - I love performing - and we have a show coming up this week and preparing for that is just so draining because apparently since I’m a cat and the costume they gave me has a masquerade style cat mask with ears, I’m not allowed to wear my freaking glasses and no one realizes that I have really bad eyesight - not so bad that I can’t walk or function completely - but if you were me - you’d realize how fucking terrifying it is when the world around you is blurry and you feel like you’re going dizzy except you’re not because this is just the damn body you’re born in.

To add on to all the stress, I have to maintain my grades and it’s just so exhausting because it’s like “test!” “test!” “review!” “review!” “oh you got a 96%?” “do better! you can’t keep distracting yourself with all this spending time with friends”

Mixed with “you never leave the house - why don’t you go out with friends?” Maybe it’s because YOU DONT LET ME.

And to top it all off, my dad is leaving for India tomorrow- and he just got back from another business trip within but still far in the country.

Tomorrow is also my brother’s birthday - my dad was supposed to leave yesterday, but he changed it so he could be here for my brother’s birthday.

How sweet and caring and thoughtful of him right?

And yes, I get that my dad is a very hardworking man and I’m very proud of him and his accomplishments but he never cares. It’s always about my perfect little brother who is far from perfect if you ask me. No matter what I do it’s always “be better!” “do better!” “you’ve been given a privilege and you’re putting it to waste!” With him, it’s always “we believe in you!” “we’ll help you through this!!” “no matter what, we’ll always love you.”

His punishments for doing literally terrible things are so small, yet when my parents find out I’m not straight, they give me emotional trauma for months. The little fucker literally trashed the neighbor’s front yard with a friend on purpose and then when confronted about it, lies straight through his teeth.

But here’s the real topping to the cake - yes I do love my parents, no matter how many times we may disagree on things, they are my rock and I wouldn’t be where I am without them. But this one small thing they couldn’t do for me. My dad goes out of his way to make sure he is there for my brother’s birthday but he isn’t there for mine last year. Last year when he left for a trip, he missed my musical’s show nights - had to watch it on a stupid hard drive - and when he did, he never said a goddamn thing. No “good job, your singing and acting was great!” or “I wish I could’ve been there in person!”

And even now, he’s still doing the same goddamn thing - he’s missing the show I’m doing and doesn’t feel a single ounce of remorse. All my fucking hard work for nothing.

It just fucking sucks when others seems to get what you want, what you need so easily, when you’ve worked your entire life to experience barely a ghost of what could’ve been.

And finally today, my brother is lying on the floor of my room, refusing to leave me the fuck alone even though I’ve been annoyed all day from walking around shopping for shit and sitting through church and trying to keep a clear head even though I just really want to go home and take a long nap but I can’t because the little fucker and trashing the room I spent all week trying to keep clean and my mom won’t do a goddamn thing because “it’s your brother and he’s just playing with you.”

And at this point- I’m just done. Because no one gets it. No one ever does.

And so I say something along the lines of “You’re turning — tomorrow. When I was your age, I was working hard, and auditioning and competing and you’re here lying on the floor of your older sister’s bedroom completely useless.”

And yes I admit that was a little harsh - he started crying - but my mom’s response was what got me.

She said “never call you brother useless again. Keep your achievements to yourself, you hear me?! I have never heard you this mean to anyone before.”

But she doesn’t know. She doesn’t know what I go through every day m, trying to keep my head high and my eyes looking forward even though I can’t see anything.

She doesn’t know, my dad doesn’t know, my brother doesn’t know, heck, most of my friends don’t even know. They all just think I’m a smart girl who’s never had a problem with her position, getting to where she is in life.

They don’t know how hard I work, how hard I worked, to keep my shaky feet on the ground, to keep myself standing tall when there’s nothing to keep me up.

For those who surely don’t need to know, I’ve been crying while typing all of this, and I’m exhausted so I’m ending this here.

Sorry for unexpectedly trauma dumping - I just needed shit off of my chest.

Hope y’all are doing okay!

Lotsa love from Kae <3

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onbearfeet · 3 months

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March Patreon Flash Story!

This month's story is a quick one based on a prompt I found while googling desperately: "The funeral was at noon." I hadn't planned on having anyone attend any funerals, but Maggie has her reasons, and I suddenly found myself wondering whatever happened to the Jimmy Olsens of my universe after the capes all disappeared.

Since I ended up not using the one prompt I got, I decided I'm entitled to post the story here without consulting anyone. MWAHAHAHA.

For more context on this 'verse, see my AO3 (onethingconstant) or the tag "Untitled Superhero Project" on this blog.

For the Living

The funeral was at noon, in a quiet little church in Indiana. There had been no announcement—well, no public announcement.

Snap Anderson had been old-school—the oldest school, he would have said. He’d been wearing Jetfighter’s signal watch since 1961, and even after the mirror-helmeted alien had gone down in flames in 1982, Snap had kept wearing the watch, deactivated and silent, as a memorial to his best friend. He’d been a lot of people’s best friend, actually—half of Vanguard’s ever-changing lineup had counted Snap as an ally or a sidekick at one point or another, and there were as many clips of Snap attending heroes’ funerals as there were of him saying outlandish things on talk shows.

Now, Snap’s own funeral had barely a dozen people huddled in the pews.

Maggie slipped in through the back of the church after the organ started up, feeling the tag on her stolen black dress itch between her shoulder blades. Coming here had been a risk, she knew; most of Snap’s social circle had vanished in white light three years ago, and she was in serious danger of standing out in a crowd that would surely all know whoever was left. Being the only likely attendee under fifty wouldn’t help, either.

But it had been on her way to New York, and she couldn’t resist.

She scurried down the aisle in her stolen kitten heels, trying to look like she’d been caught in midday traffic, and slid into the first open seat in the frontmost empty pew. Everyone was singing, droning along to a song she hadn’t heard growing up in St. Joseph’s, so she stared at the floor and mumbled watermelon watermelon watermelon until it was time to stop.

The eulogy was bland, from what she could tell, and seemed to have copied several sentences verbatim from Snap’s Wikipedia page. That didn’t stop the occasional sob or sniffle from the gathered mourners. She wasn’t sure they were listening either.

One of the nuns had told her once that funerals are for the living, not the dead. Maybe the words didn’t matter as long as someone said them. As long as someone said something.

She wondered whether anyone would say anything when she died. Probably not, except for whoever had to clean up the mess.

The eulogy ended, and the organ started up again, and as the creaky mourners levered themselves out of their pews for a final round of what sounded like “Oh God Triumphant And Invisible”, Maggie craned her neck and saw it.

Standing by the head of the casket, just for an instant, was a tall figure in black body armor, half-swathed in a long black cloak, with a gleaming white mask carved to look like a grinning skull. It wasn’t a friendly skull, or even a particularly scary one. Not a Día de los Muertos calavera or a grinning rubber Halloween mask from a party store. It looked like someone had simply taken an ordinary human skull off a pile of them somewhere, sliced off the front of it, and glued it to the front of an otherwise formless black void.

Got you, you bastard, Maggie snarled to herself. The obituary had said Snap had died a natural death, but she knew better now.

Skullfaced freak never could resist a good chance to gloat.

The figure vanished again before she could so much as twitch out of her seat, and no one else in the little congregation reacted, but that was all right. She knew what she’d seen.

When the service ended, she retrieved her pack from behind the dumpster where she’d stashed it and wrote another name in her notebook. The dress and shoes went into the trash, her jeans and sneakers went back on, and she was walking toward the bus station before Snap Anderson’s casket was back in the hearse.

#untitled superhero project #kat writes #patreon story #this story brought to you by panic and desperation #snap anderson is not in this book #but skully dude sure is #have fun speculating lol

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catholic-character-tournament · 1 year

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Round 1 - Resurrect Bracket (Losers Bracket) Side A

ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to [make it to the finals]

Propaganda below ⬇️

Temenos

so his whole thing is he's an inquisitor who is just fundamentally bad at being a priest on account of he does things like forgetting scripture and not being able to help but doubt the institution which gets everyone hes ever cared about killed. he's gay. he says shit like "careful, i bite". he's in yuri with a holy knight. he's one of my favorite characters and i want to beat him over the head with a cast iron skillet

fucked up gay little cleric who was supposed to grapple with the fact that the institution he serves is corrupt except he has been in doubt from the very beginning and very clearly doesnt put much stock in the scripture hes made it his lifes work to preach. hes kinda a freak with it. every line he speaks is said with the cadence of a gay guy checking under his nails while ignoring you as he talks. i have to hit him with mallets and shatter him into pieces.

This man is the world's worst clergyman. He's a high ranking member of the holy inquisition, but nobody respects him and he mostly just uses his position to investigate random murders for fun. He regularly forgets how the bible goes and little kids have to correct him on how the plot goes of the jrpg equivalent of jesus's resurrection. He has a holy knight for a boyfriend. He tortures people for information any other character can just ask for. His best friend out of the rest of the main 8 is an assassin and gang member. He tries to get people to commit crimes with him. His story is about uprooting the corruption in his church and killing high ranking church members and also Literal Fucking Jrpg satan. He regularly blasphemes and everyone around him looks in horror as he shouts at god and encourages people to become atheists. His catchphrase is "doubt is what I do." He is still somehow the most devout character in the entire game despite being a total fuck up of a cleric who does not deserve to be here whatsoever. Pls let him win it'd be SO FUNNY

Hes genuinely just the funniest guy. Very little about his story has to do with the faith but like. He routinely roasts the entire pantheon of in-universe gods. He beats people up (metaphorically of course) as one of his main game mechanics. He got stamped as the resident gayboy SO fast. His starliner definitely has higher intelligence than wisdom even though clerics use wisdom. Every chapter he appears in he solves a mystery by zoning out so hard his god blesses him with extremely vivid hallucinations. He's so deeply fucking traumatized. One of his battle skills is fully just beating his enemies up with his staff. He ends up defunding the police. He can very casually become a thermonuclear bomb but in a very holy way. His best friend is a 23-year-old assassin that exclusively calls him "Detective". Is he Catholic (ish)? Yeah, but he certainly doesn't always act like it.

He constantly commits heresy and doubts the gods but is still the not-Pope's right hand man

Listen, imagine you'd go to church and your priest gets roasted by kids for forgetting how the bible goes. That's him, canonically even. He's like if a redditor who wants to be a detective was cosplaying as a holy man. He's someone whose whole thing is doubting the gods and the church, to the point where he makes another person question his faith too, even though he is technically The holy man. He's absolutely unhinged and gay. He's 30 years old and absolutely does not look like it. He's traumatized, and cannot be sincere and honest about his feelings even once. He should go to therapy actually. Like desperately. For his sake and everyone around him.

he is from the faith but he doubts everything around him to find the truth through it........ also i'd like to see him torment the crotchety priest i had to do a face-to-face confession with in high school. it'd be funny.

FATHER BROWN BUT MAKE HIM GAY AND PLAGUED BY TRUST ISSUES. This man will forget his own sermons, beat people up for infos and, at the same time, gets to be the fantasy equivalent of a youth pastor. He somehow manages to be the most unhinged person in a party that includes a vengeful math professor who can and WILL mug people. He might not be the most devout Catholic of them all, but he is definitely the *funniest* one. Give it up for the world's shittiest priest!

i’m gonna be honest temenos is a TERRIBLE catholic but he’s funny and i love him. he also has a weird gay thing going on with a paladin it’s great.

Link

Well, maybe not specifically catholic. But behold, OFFICIAL ART: https://cdn.wikimg.net/en/zeldawiki/images/a/ab/LinkPraying.png

in the original legend of zelda game there’s a bible (localized to the book of magic due to nintendo of america’s guidelines), a cross in the adventure of link, and in a link to the past, there’s art of him kneeling in front of a crucifix. hyrule has its own religions but there are undeniable christian roots.

#link #loz #legend of zelda #cct polls #tumblr tournament #tumblr bracket #tumblr polls #tenemos mistral #octopath traveler 2 #octopath temenos

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nerves-nebula · 1 year

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I’ve never really recognized it as “religious trauma”, but I’m nodding along to ur list. It’s just kinda stuff that happened. Except for the few things that grown me was kinda at like ‘that seems a little bad actually-‘

I remember being 7 and first thinking what if God isn’t real as I was trying to sleep. So it’s like midnight and I’ve just had this world breaking thought that immediately had me spiraling down two trains of thought: Im going to hell for thinking that, and, what if he isn’t what the fuck. So of course I’m freaked out and I’m pretty sure child me needed a fucking hug or some assurance or something, so I went to my parents room, which woke up my mom. At which point I realize, I can’t tell them my actual problem because it was a thought I was ashamed of having, and I didn’t want to run the risk of getting in trouble for some nebulous comfort that was frankly unfathomable cus my parents suck. So I just said felt sick, and took “sorry” my mam gave me as comfort enough (which in hindsight is not a great response to that), and just had to go back to bed with all that. That shit stuck with me. I remember at Sunday school, maybe months or a year later, when one of the teachers said doubt was put in our minds by the devil, I was so fucking relieved.

And there’s the fact that I didn’t know other religions were a thing. I didn’t know there were other blends of Christianity. I lived in a small town and I just had never been touched by that concept until I moved at 11, and one of our religious education modules was on Judaism. Everyone else was just learning customs and calendar stuff, and I was having a whole epiphany. I was so confused until halfway into the lesson, and I realized they were talking about not being catholic. I literally searched the library for a book that would explain this arcane concept. And it was just such a mind blowing experience. I was couldn’t comprehend why no one had ever mentioned other religions if there were so many. And how did it make any sense that there were so many. The differences aren’t subtle. Point is, it was a whole thing.

If I hadn’t moved I would have been made to do my confirmation that school year. And that’s not okay! The whole point of that sacrament is that you’re choosing Christianity, like your old enough and conscious enough to make that choice. Adult in the eyes of the church and all that. Baptism but leveled up. But they make children do it. Unrelated, but when I first learnt about it I was 8, and there was a girl in my class that never had to religion with us. Which was the weirdest thing to me at the time, because sure there were people that didn’t have to do Irish or English, because they had different first languages. But religion? I always found that so weird. But she literally just. Wasn’t catholic. And I just couldn’t conceptualize that. It didn’t occur to me that could be an option.

Jesus, raising kids with a religion is brainwashing of the highest order and no one can change my mind on that. Sorry for rambling at u, that post just made me think.

my girlfriend said this exact same thing when i was forced to be confirmed. said it didnt count but tbh that feels like a cop out. like its something ive been forced to do, like a spiritual violation or something, it still happened. but, eh, whatever

Jesus, raising kids with a religion is brainwashing of the highest order and no one can change my mind on that.

not sure i agree with you here, but i can agree that a lot of the ways kids are raised within Christianity is cult-ish and brainwash-y and bad.

#nnstuff #ask #christianity tw

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ghostboneswrites2 · 20 days

Text

Doe Eyes - CH14 - We’re In.

Chapter List

Warnings: Violence, Gore, Spoilers, Character death

Masterlist // Taglist

Rick and the others returned with a large haul of canned food. There was a sort of feast that night, everyone filling plates like it was a buffet. You sat near Carol and Daryl in the pews, digging into your canned carrots and green beans.

"That's all you got?" Carol asked you, giving you a funny look.

"I don't like beans and canned meat freaks me out." You admitted. She laughed.

"All things considered and you're afraid of canned meat?"

"Not afraid!" You laughed. "Just isn't appetizing."

"There were some peas up there, I think." She said.

"Ew." You scrunched your nose.

"You're pickier than my daughter was." She shook her head, chuckling as she took a bite.

"You had a daughter?" You asked.

"Yeah. I did. She was the sweetest thing, but she was a picky eater. Just like you." She lamented.

"I'm sorry she isn't here anymore. I would've loved to meet her." You consoled.

"It's good that she isn't." Carol nodded. "She didn't need to go through all the things we have."

"She would've been fine." Daryl said. "Would've been kickin' ass like the rest of us."

"Yeah, maybe, but that wouldn't have been her. She shouldn't have to do that." Carol sighed. She didn't seem sad, she seemed at peace, but still, you didn't know how to respond. You never had a kid, let alone experienced that kind of loss.

"I'd like to propose a toast." Abraham spoke up at the front of the church, grabbing everyone's attention. "I look around this room, and I see survivors. Each and every one of you has earned that title. To the survivors." He said, raising his glass.

"To the survivors!" You all said, toasting back.

"Is that all you wanna be?" Abraham continued. "Wake up in the mornin', fight the undead pricks, forage for food, go to sleep at night with two eyes open, rinse and repeat? 'Cause you can do that. I mean, you got the strength, you got the skill. Thing is, for you people, for what you can do, that's just surrender. Now, we get Eugene to Washington, he will make the dead die and the living will have this world again. And, that is not a bad takeaway for a little road trip. Eugene, what's in D.C.?"

Eugene cleared his throat.

"Infrastructure constructed to withstand pandemics even of this fubar magnitude. That means food, fuel, refuge. Restart." Eugene replied.

"However this plays out, however long it takes for the restart button to kick in, you can be safe there. Safer than you've been since this whole thing started. Come with us. Save the world for that little one. Save it for yourselves. Save it for the people out there who don't got nothin' left to do except survive." Abraham added.

"What was that?" Rick asked Judith as she cooed and babbled. "I think she knows what I'm about to say. If she's in, I'm in. We're in."

----

Carol had disappeared, so you and Daryl decided to go see what she was doing. Daryl said he had a feeling where she'd snuck off to, and sure enough he was right where he thought he'd find her, by some old car. She had it turned on and gassed up when you got there.

"What're you doin'?" Daryl asked as the two of you stepped out of the brush.

"I don't know." Carol admitted.

There was the sound of an engine in the distance, and Daryl pulled the two of you down behind the back of the car. The three of you watched a car zoom by on the street that ran perpendicular to the road you were on. Daryl sprinted over and watched as it drove on. He ran back and started smashing the tail lights off the car Carol had found.

"What are you doing?!" She yelled.

"They got Beth!" He said. "C'mon. Get in!"

And with that, the three of you piled into the car, Daryl in the driver's seat, Carol riding passenger, and you in the center of the back seat so you'd have a clear view.

You guys followed the car for a while, making small talk along the way.

"So it was just you two and Beth after?" Carol asked.

"Yeah." Daryl said.

"You saved her?" She wondered.

"She's tough." You said. "She saved herself."

"We were out there for a while." Daryl continued. "We got cornered, she got out in front of us and I don't know.. She was just gone."

"We came out of the trees and a car was pulling away with a white cross on the window." You added.

"Just like that one?" She asked.

"Yup." Daryl nodded.

"Rick's gonna wonder where we went." You said.

"Tank's runnin' low." Daryl sighed.

"We can end this quick, just run them off the road." Carol suggested.

"Nah, we're good for a bit." Daryl shook his head.

"If they're holding her somewhere we can get it out of the driver." She said.

"Yeah, but what if he doesn't talk?" You asked.

"Then we're back to square one." Daryl replied. "Right now we got the advantage. We'll see who they are, if they're a group, and what they can do. And then we'll do what we gotta do to get her back."

"They're heading north." Carol observed. "I-85."

You could see Atlanta off in the distance, the outline of the cityscape looming in the dark. Whoever you were following was unaware of your presence because Daryl kept the headlights off. He followed them into the city, creeping around each turn. He pulled to a stop when they did, a few building lengths behind them to maintain cover.

"The hell is he waitin' for?" He wondered aloud. A man exited the passenger side of the car. "There's two of 'em."

"Is that a cop?" You asked, gripping the small pistol in your belt. Carol seemed to have the same idea, pulling a silvery revolver from her waistline.

"Maybe they've seen us." She suggested.

The man rounded the corner of the building they parked beside, walking out of view. The three of you waited in silence. A walked slapped Carol's window, hissing at the meal he it couldn't reach. She jumped and let out a breath, but you all ultimately ignored it. The cop came back, dropping two bicycles down on the corner of the street. He was dragging something into the street when he noticed the walker clawing at Carol's window.. He took a double take, probably wondering what the walker was clawing for.

Daryl went to start the car when the officer got back into the passenger seat, but it wouldn't start.

"Aw, shit." He said. "Tank's tapped. They'd have taken the bypass and they didn't. They must be holed up in the city somewhere."

"Must be a load of fuckin' psychos. Who the hell would want to stay here? This place is infested." You commented.

Over in the distance, you could see walkers slowly emerging from the darkness, probably drawn by the lights and sound of the engine.

"We gotta move." Daryl said.

"We could find a place to hole up until sunlight." You suggested.

"I know a place." Carol said. "It's just a couple blocks from here. We can make it."

She rolled her window down and stabbed the walker outside and the three of you made a run for it. It was mostly smooth sailing to the hideout she talked about. You and Carol took down walkers as they approached while Daryl worked on breaking into the building as quietly as possible.

"Come on." Daryl called to the two of you as you paused walker slaying. Carol froze as if she heard something before the two of you ran inside. The place was mostly clear, any walkers were already taken down. Daryl took some keys off of one that was against the wall, and you guys held up in a small office.

"You used to work here or something?" He asked.

"Something." She replied.

She took the keys from Daryl and led you two through another door within the office. The next room had some bunkbeds and other random things.

"What is this place?" You asked.

"Temporary housing." She answered. You looked down to a table by the bunks and saw a thick book labeled 'Treating Survivors of Childhood Abuse'.

"You came here?" Daryl inquired, looking at the same book.

"We didn't stay." She said. He set his crossbow on the table.

"I'll take the top bunk." Carol announced, setting her weapons up top and climbing up.

You and Daryl looked at each other. You shrugged. "You can bunk with me." You smirked. He huffed a breathy chuckle and shook his head.

"It's alright." He shook his head.

"C'mon. I'm real cuddly." You urged.

"Jesus, get a room, you two." Carol rolled her eyes before she laid down.

Daryl studied you before he sighed, taking off his vest and his jacket. You set your gun down on the table by his bow. You thought about your crowbar and wondered if you could find a new one in the city while you were there. There was bound to be one laying around somewhere, and you never got yours back from Terminus.

"You two should sleep. I'll keep first watch." Carol said as she sat up and slid off the bunk, walking over to a window.

"Place is locked up pretty tight." You said.

"I know." She replied.

"So we're good then." Daryl added.

"I'll keep first watch." She insisted. "I don't mind."

You and Daryl shrugged and got ready to sleep. You crawled on the bottom bunk and scooted close to the wall in case Daryl decided to take you up on your offer.

You were surprised to feel the weight on the bed shift as he laid down. You thought he'd probably take Carol's bunk until she laid down.

"Now we can stink up the mattress together." You joked. You didn't realize how tired you were until he laid down next to you.

"Whatever, it'll be your stench soakin' into the sheets, not mine." He fired back.

"Oh, please. You smell like trees and dead squirrels."

"Mm. Better than onions and dead bodies."

You kicked his leg with the side of your foot.

"Just the onions, thank you very much." You scoffed.

"Nah. Your nose just got so used to it you can't smell it no more." He teased.

"Whatever, Dixon." You sighed as you rolled over.

#daryl dixon #daryl x reader #twd daryl #the walking dead daryl #daryl x female reader #daryl twd #daryl fanfiction #daryl dixon fanfic #daryl x you #daryl x y/n

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