#have all the demons of hell come to torment me? ; verse

[hauntthumans]

BENJAMIN “SWEENEY TODD” BARKER

42. heterosexual. he/him. was wrongly convicted for a crime he didn’t commit. spends his time in jail plotting revenge. wants nothing more than to see judge turpin dead. still has hope that lucy might be alive, despite what mrs. lovett said. thinks mrs. lovett is clingy and annoying but he likes her ideas. grows more and more paranoid as time goes on. fc: josh groban. primary.

ELEANOR “NELLIE” LOVETT

38. bisexual. she/her. has been in love with sweeney since she heard the story about him and turpin. is extremely jealous of lucy for getting to marry him. doesn’t like johanna because she’s proof that sweeney has no feelings for her. loves toby like he’s her own child. wants desperately for sweeney to take an interest in her but knows deep down that he never will. doesn’t like turpin because he took sweeney away from her. fc: annaleigh ashford. primary.

LUCY BARKER

40. heterosexual. she/her. didn’t want to go to that party but went anyway so as not to seem rude. rejects the judge’s advances even more after. loves her daughter more than life itself and, even after she takes the poison, does what little she can to make sure she’s safe. doesn’t like lovett at all. is absolutely heartbroken when sweeney is arrested and spends her days waiting for him to come back. takes the poison because she can’t live with herself for letting the judge do that to her. fc: ruthie ann miles. primary.

PHILLIP TURPIN

61. heterosexual. he/him. arrests sweeney so that he can have an easier path to his wife. doesn’t think that lucy will take poison and gives up on her once she does. takes johanna in because it’s the right thing to do and also because he thinks she’s pretty. has been intending to marry her since she was thirteen or so. threatens anthony and would have killed him if he hadn’t had to be in court. wasn't expecting sweeney to know him and genuinely liked him as a barber until anthony showed up. fc: patrick page. plotting only.

SIMON BAMFORD

55. heterosexual. he/him. has been working with turpin since they were young. knew phillip when they were children but didn’t properly meet him until they were adults. sometimes wishes it were him that was marrying johanna, but respects phillip’s wishes to marry her. the only reason he doesn’t kill anthony is because he had to patrol town. has been trying to get the beggars off the streets for years. doesn’t like lucy or lovett, as he thinks they're foolish and flighty. fc: john rapson. secondary.

DANIEL “ADOLFO PIRELLI” O’HIGGINS

32. heterosexual. he/him. used to work for sweeney when he was a child and greatly respected him. saw sweeney and lucy as parental figures. working for sweeney is the reason he’s a barber today. adopted toby from the workhouse. doesn’t like toby very much because he doesn’t bring in good sales. resents sweeney for getting arrested and leaving him without a job. fc: nicholas christopher. secondary.

JONAS FOGG

40. heterosexual. he/him. had an absolutely terrible childhood and was sent to the workhouse at a young age. managed to get out after a year and find work in an office building. worked his way up to become a higher-up and then, once he'd been there for three years, left. decided to open the asylum because something needed to be done about the lunatics in london and he was the best man for the job. treats the inmates absolutely horribly. uses the money he gets from the government on himself instead of putting it towards the asylum. fc: domnhall gleeson. plotting only.

verses

BENJAMIN “SWEENEY TODD” BARKER

the face of a prisoner in the dock ; verse - pre canon.

the demon barber of fleet street ; verse - canon.

sweeney’s weeping for yesterday ; verse - post canon.

his needs are few, his room is bare ; verse - modern.

hearing the music that nobody hears ; verse - crossovers/aus.

ELEANOR “NELLIE” LOVETT

i haven’t seen a customer for weeks ; verse - pre canon.

it’s man devouring man, my dear ; verse - canon.

have all the demons of hell come to torment me? ; verse - post canon.

by the sea we’ll be comfy and cozy ; verse - modern.

my, you do like a good story ; verse - crossovers/aus.

LUCY BARKER

had her chance for the moon on a string ; verse - pre canon.

alms for a miserable woman ; verse - canon.

never said that she died ; verse - post canon.

city on fire, rats in the grass ; verse - modern.

lunatics yelling in the street ; verse - crossovers/aus.

PHILLIP TURPIN

he was there alright, only not so contrite ; verse -pre canon.

when i offered myself to her, she showed a certain reluctance ; verse - canon.

there is indeed a higher power to warn me thus in time ; verse - post canon.

a pious vulture of the law ; verse - modern.

he made the devil so much stronger than a man ; verse - crossovers/aus.

SIMON BAMFORD

spoken of with great respect ; verse - pre canon.

you shall surely see me there before the week is out ; verse - canon.

i try my best for my neighbors ; verse - post canon. 

someone has called the beadle ; verse - modern. 

the beadle calls on her all polite ; verse - crossovers/aus.

DANIEL “ADOLFO PIRELLI” O’HIGGINS

sweeping up hair and the like ; verse - pre canon.

this is, from early infancy, the talent give to me by god ; verse - canon.

what are we going to do about him? ; verse - post canon.

to shave the face ; verse - modern.

for if you slip you nick the skin ; verse - crossovers/aus.

JONAS FOGG

we are one happy family here ; verse - pre canon.

all my patients are my children ; verse - canon.

smile for the gentleman ; verse - post canon.

now, where shall i cut? ; verse - modern.

to be corrected when they’re naughty ; verse - crossovers/aus.

#char : benjamin barker #the face of a prisoner in the dock ; verse #the demon barber of fleet street ; verse #sweeney’s weeping for yesterday ; verse #his needs are few‚ his room is bare ; verse #hearing the music that nobody hears ; verse #char : eleanor lovett #i haven’t seen a customer for weeks ; verse #it’s man devouring man‚ my dear ; verse #have all the demons of hell come to torment me? ; verse #by the sea we’ll be comfy and cozy ; verse #my‚ you do like a good story ; verse #char : lucy barker #had her chance for the moon on a string ; verse #alms for a miserable woman ; verse #never said that she died ; verse #city on fire‚ rats in the grass ; verse #lunatics yelling in the streets ; verse #char : phillip turpin #he was there alright‚ only not so contrite ; verse #when i offered myself to her‚ she showed a certain reluctance ; verse #there is indeed a higher power to warn me thus in time ; verse #a pious vulture of the law ; verse #he made the devil so much stronger than a man ; verse #char : simon bamford #spoken of with great respect ; verse #you shall surely see me there before the week is out ; verse #i try my best for my neighbors ; verse #someone has called the beadle ; verse #the beadle calls on her all polite ; verse

[cookiesupplier]

A Friend Down In Hell - Part Three

pairing: Nick Folio x ofc (Ishtar)

warnings/tropes: slow burn, pining, idiot in love, language, drinking, mentions of violence, mentions of torture, mentions of religious mythology. (potentially more to be added)

summary: Folio can't quite tell you how long he's been dead, but it doesn't matter when he has friends like his, and Ishtar. Ishtar, with whom he fell in love the moment he met her. The problem? She doesn't know it. How does he convince a demon, who is practically immortal, to date him when he's dead? How did Ellie do it so easily?

author’s note: Unbetaed.. Enjoy!

tags: @spicywhenspeaking @tearfallpixie @cncohshit @nyxthedestroyerofworlds @lyschko666 @bngurngheart @lacktoesandtoddlerants @sorrowsofsilence @collapsedglasshouses @vinyardmauro @dsireland86 @4rtificialfolio @emmmm127 @badomensls

Tag lists are open, please let me know if you'd like to be added to this story, the Hell-Verse as a whole, or Everything.

Ishtar’s night was not going as well as she would like it to, Tony was being extra vulgar. From the vile things she’d heard about them from some in the human world, you’d think being demons and vulgarities went hand in hand, but it didn’t. They were as normal as anyone else, at least she supposed it really depended on what one would consider normal. In some cases, normal was tormenting souls day in, and day out to teach them lessons that they hadn’t managed to learn during their previous life cycle. Not that she thought that was a bad thing, it was just another job here, it was a means of living in the Afterlife. Tony, though, made a habit of bringing vulgarity into their job where it didn’t need to be, she was not part of the merchandise to be sold, thank you. The fact that he was human didn’t matter, it was almost as if working in a demon-friendly bar, gave him license to be as crass as he desired to be.

Yes, her mother was associated with love and fertility, but he sometimes forgot that the woman was also very closely associated with war. This meant that when he suggested that Ishtar could use her body to sell more, she might also just have no problem beating him fucking senseless for it. They didn’t even really exchange money, the man was ridiculous. Thankfully, she liked her job too much to get fired because her manager was a pig who told her to pop extra buttons on her shirt and expose her cleavage a bit more.

She was drying off a few freshly washed glasses when Folio came up to the bar, having seen him walk in, she brightened as she saw that cute smile approach.

“Well, hello there, Sunshine. Fancy seeing you tonight, it's been a while.”

Setting the glass down, winking to him as Folio grinned, she used the nickname, because she did her best to try and keep her distance from her customers and not using their actual names was one of the ways she did that. Nicknames she recycled over and over were a given, even if Folio was something special, Sunshine was just for him, but there was a hope that he hadn’t picked up on that, or anyone else. As yet, no one had said anything.

Folio beamed when Ishtar came to him, thankful he didn’t have to wait long for her, had he timed it to get to the bar so she could serve him, ah, hell yeah, Tony was a butt face, the dude was just an ass-hat that liked to leer at girls and made Folio want to ask Ellie to borrow her bat sometimes, but, he didn’t, because being banned from the bar would mean not coming back to see Ishtar. Seeing the way her face lit up after how frustrated she looked moments ago, made it all the better right now,

“Everything has been a bit up in the air, with Ellie officially joining the dead-as-a-door nail squad and all.”

Folio’s wry smile came then, he knew his sense of humour wasn’t the kind most agreed with, but come on, he was dead, if he couldn’t make fun of it, what good was it? Did he really have to mope about all the time because he was dead? He didn’t feel dead, why did he have to be sad about it? He wanted to live every day to its fullest, even here, in hell! Thankfully, Ishtar had never been one of those who gave him flack whenever he made a joke about it, instead she just laughed and shook his head at him.

“Well, I’m glad she didn’t take all your heads off, it’s good to see you guys are back after all, who else is going to give the demons a run for their money at the shot challenges.”

Ishtar winked at Folio with that, he was kind of notorious for doing that to Sebastian after so many years, not that he’d ever won, but he kept trying. She’d give him that, he was beyond determined at the very least. It was admirable. It was adorable. Even when he was passed out drooling on the floor, it shouldn’t be, but it was. Ishtar knew she should be more firm about not serving him as many shots, but when he smiled at her, how could she say no?

Folio couldn’t help but chuckle.

“You bet I’ll be back for those shots later, but for now, our starter round please.”

She smiled brightly and Folio grinned, the soft gleam of Ishtar’s amethyst eyes as she turned to fill his order, she was so beautiful, he’d never met anyone more captivating. Anyone who assumed that she was nothing but a pretty face and a bartender didn’t see beyond the demoness that stood beyond the bar pouring drinks. Folio saw more. Once she had finished their drinks, she set them in front of him, he smiled at her,

“Thanks.”

Folio carried the tray of drinks back toward their table and found the guys chatting among themselves, Ellie had a knowing smile on her face,

“So, that's the girlfriend.”

He rolled his eyes as he glared at Jolly, knowing he was the one who was most likely to give him away. After all, he was the one who was always trying to give him advice about how he could actually do something about what he wanted, which was to actually date Ishtar instead of just sitting and flirting with her. He’d never get it.

Ellie just laughed,

“Oh don’t look at Jolly, he didn’t say a damn thing, you're the one that was standing at the bar with hearts in your eyes Folio, it was easy to put two and two together.”

Right, now that she’d been given hints, that there was a girl on the scene that he liked, and why not Ishtar..

“I should have seen it the first time we came here.. I remember her, seeing you flirting with her that day.. Remembering how gorgeous she was.. Damn.. wait..”

Ellie looked from Folio to the bar, and then back, and he was quick to drink some more of his bar as he could hear the other guys start to laugh around him while Ellie was looking at him with deeper scrutiny.

“How long, Folio?”

Swallowing down the gulp of his beer, pretending like he hadn’t heard the question,

“What?”

“How long?”

“What do you mean? How long what?”

Oh, he was happy to play dumb as long as he needed to, he really didn’t want to answer this question. All the guys knew the answer, and they were laughing at him. They all thought he was an idiot, Ellie would think he was an idiot, but it wasn’t like he had a time frame okay, he had forever, and he was dead alright. They weren’t mortal or anything… he had plenty of time, he was fine!

“How long, Folio?”

Oh, fine, he’d tell her,

“Fine fine fine, pretty much since I met her after I got out of punishment…”

She looked at him with raised eyebrows as if to say, how long ago was that…

“It doesn’t matter, a few years, I have my reasons, but it's going to work, she’d got to ask me out okay, I am not going to be one of those creeps that give the bartender my phone number.. I used to be the bartender, okay.. You know what we called those people? Barflies, and we just shooed them away, I refuse to be nothing but a barfly! One day, she’s going to ask me out. One day.”

There, there, he said it. Downing the rest of his beer,

“Now, Noah, since you want to laugh at me, I suppose you’re all good for some shots?”

Folio grinned wide and Ellie groaned,

“Folio, you promised!”

Nope, no he had not, she just asked if they could skip the challenges, and he’d pointedly not answered, maybe letting her think he agreed when he had no intention, the shot challenges were the best way for him to get more time with Ishtar for him… so, here they went.

Ishtar watched as Folio and Sebastian were at the bar, downing the shots. One after the other. She might have added some extra kick to some of Sebastian’s shots, half to help Sunshine, and half to spite Tony. The likes of Noah Sebastian distinctly getting tipsy drunk over a few shots, and he knew she was giving him the extra strong stuff, the good drinks, and he was pissed, she could tell, but he couldn’t do anything about it because technically, she wasn’t doing anything wrong. Tony however like to stretch the booze further by giving the crappy stuff, which she would never understand considering they weren’t charging money for it anyway. They looked after each other in here, and Tony, he only looked after himself, so to her it was no wonder he was he had been in the job he was doing twice as long as anyone else before him. She felt no guilt in throwing him under the bus at that moment, he was a horrible manager of the bar, horrible.

Smiling, she giggled as she poured another round of shots for the pair at the bar, making sure the demon’s shots were suitable for him, watching as he was swaying on his feet. Her lips pressed together with a slight smirk. Go on Sebastian, enjoy getting, how did some of the humans come through put it, drunk as a skunk? She did not envy that poor human Ellie, putting up with that giant demon hung over and all that. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. He was probably one that was a baby about it, and would magic it away.

As it was, Ishtar, slid the shot to Folio now, whose smile had turned, for lack of the better word, fuzzy as he looked at her. His eyes were still so bright, blinking to her as if he stars in his eyes,

“Oh Ishhy, thanksshh you.”

She giggled, shaking her head at him, he always got like this during the shot challenges, Ishhy, Ishtar shut down anyone else that dared try to call her that. When Tony had laughed and called her that after the first night that Folio had, in return, she’d flipped him off and told him where to go shove it. He had never much liked that she hadn’t been very receptive to his advances, but the fact that she’d not rebuffed Folio just as intensely as she did everyone else, seemed to rub him the wrong way, but she didn’t care what he thought. Tony was inept at best.

“You’re welcome, Sunshine, drink up, tonight is your night, I got a feeling.”

It wasn’t his night sadly, but it also wasn’t Sebastian’s night, they called the challenge before they both passed out on the floor, but what followed after the challenge well, drunk people didn’t make the smartest choices, and the girls that always followed Sebastian around. One of them made the mistake of trying to drunkenly flirt with him.

In front of his girlfriend.

Scratch that, they didn’t just try to hit on him, it was so much worse than that.

Jolly had just agreed to take Folio back to his apartment because Ellie was going to need help getting Noah home this time. He didn’t always get this drunk, Ishtar might have felt bad for that, but technically as she saw it she’d just evened the odds on Folio’s behalf.

Before Ellie, Noah might have laughed off how drunk he was, he might have just stumbled out with his arm slung around Nicholas’ shoulder to head home. There was even a time, though that changed a few years back when Noah would be walking out with any number of random women. Ishtar hadn’t been working here long when he was doing that, but apparently, those groupies of his had been a popular choice. Always hanging on his every word, so easily enamoured with him… and tonight it seemed one of them hadn’t forgotten, or was willing to give up on trying again.

Before they left, Ellie went off to the bathroom, and Nicholas was sitting with Noah, making sure he didn’t fall flat on his face mind you, when the girl walked her way over to him, the purpose in her step was obvious. Ishtar from the bar couldn’t hear what was being said, but she could tell from Nicholas look of disgust, reluctantly stepping back, crossing his arms with a frown, and Noah’s drunken stumped look of confusion, that plainly said, what-the-fuck-is-this-bitch-doing with the way her ruby nail claws trailed along his shoulders down his tattoo exposed arm from his tank top. He said something to her, and Ishtar’s eyes narrowed as she dried the glass from behind the bar when the girl just giggled, what was she playing at, she could see from here the way he wasn’t having what she was putting down. He was drunk though, and he looked it, so his movements were sluggish at best.. So, as Ellie was coming out of the bathroom, just in time to see the stupid little demon girl leaning into her boyfriend as he tried to push her away from him, Nicholas arguing with her about being too close, and Ellie saw just in time to shriek across the bar as she went to rush over.

Chaos erupted.

Divider by @saradika-graphics

#nick folio #nick folio x ofc #original female character #original character #demons #bad omens #fanfiction #bad omens fanfic #folio #hell au #hell verse #fic: a friend down in hell #bad omens cult #bad omens band #bad omens fanfiction #bad omens fic #nick folio fanfiction #nick folio fanfic #joakim jolly karlsson #noah sebastian #nicholas ruffilo

[thesinglesjukebox]

THROWN - "ON THE VERGE"

Michelle gets us some metalcore coverage...

[6.36]

David Moore: Power music, nu metal revival! [7]

Michelle Myers: Metalcore is less a genre than an approach. It's hardcore-shaped music rendered in a metallic palette. In thrown's case, the hardcore is modern, post-Knocked Loose heavy shit with a tough NYHC beatdown influence. The metal is thuddy, dissonant thall, pitched straight down to the depths of hell. In an interview with Ola Englund, Thrown's multi-instrumentalist/producer Buster Odeholm said, "It's 2023. Notes are overrated." Thrown's willingness to eschew melody for texture and rhythm lends their music gravitas. The riffs on "On the Verge" are never sterile, and Thrown's considerable technical prowess doesn't overshadow the intense emotionality of their music. They don't need to play fast. They don't need to squeal like hellspawn. When the breakdown comes, they just chug slower. The new pace allows frontman Marcus Lundquist to add a new layer of despair to his words as he repeats the first verse. "I've tried," he insists, in the past tense, "to come to terms with my mind." He doesn't need to tell you it was an unsuccessful attempt. [9]

Brad Shoup: One of my favorite bits is "Nuggets, but for __". If it worked for garage rock--a very bad style of music--why wouldn't it work for Eurodance or gabber or freestyle? Or metalcore? This would be one for the Children of Nuggets box: the anguish is rendered from a very old and muddy palette. (Referencing "demons" is bad enough; did they really have to rhyme it with "screaming"?) But to their credit, they take their torment and swing it against a brick wall. The track, frankly, slams: the breakdown is sick, the klaxon-like guitar ostinato and rap sample are a nice nod to the massively influential (!) Linkin Park. Another hint we're dealing with a new generation of metalcore: they're out in a breezy 2:15. [6]

Ian Mathers: Satisfyingly chunky, like a good peanut butter. After the relative velocity of the opening salvo, it's a nice change when they downshift into something more stompy. Kind of wish they kept it there, but this is so short I can just play it again. [7]

Will Rivitz: If not for the TikTokicity of this song -- phonk-inflected intro and interlude, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridges-are-for-suckers structure -- you could have convinced me this came out in 2007. As that was the last time this type of -core featured regularly in my musical diet, I don't mind the throwback at all. [7]

Katherine St Asaph: This wasn't my thing then, and it still isn't my thing if you add a Tyga intro. [4]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: I'm mostly interested in this as a barrage of textures: the phonk intro, the revved-up guitars 40 seconds in, the breakdown's constant pummeling, the way things cohere in the final seconds. And yet, I still feel shortchanged -- there's not enough time for the heaviness to really hit you. [5]

Nortey Dowuona: The snare drum is the most underrated drum in music. It settles a song, makes it translatable and danceable -- a space for vocalists, other instrumentalists and a poet -- but it rarely gets as much praise and love as the bass drum or the kick or the hihats. Here, the snare punctuates the frothy guitar and drowned bass and drags the song back to earth, allowing one to get immersed as the song lurches to a stomp, then a hop, a jog, all made possible by the snare. [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Linearly gets more conventional (and less interesting) with time; I was so disappointed when it switched from the very fun groove-like riff of the first half to the more pounding downward spiral of the B section that I immediately ran back to the start of the song. [6]

Micha Cavaseno: One of the more fascinating things about the death of rapper XXXTentacion is just how effectively he helped bring dirtbag aggro rock energy back from seeming death. His flirtations with "screamo" and "nu-metal" (themselves emulating the work of fellow post-Raider Klan rapper Bones) led to a bunch of kids in rap and rock alike taking his DNA and merging it into filthy Adidas Rock wallows, whether for aesthetic purposes or genuine appreciation. "On the Verge" is the same beatdown hardcore knucklescrapes that I've heard for decades, but until fairly recently your average rap homages were funk beats or a guy rambling about his third eye, not fake Memphis-style loops or Marcus Lundqvist barking in a Three Six-style staccato pattern. I can't help but be taken with the idea that we live in a world that's slightly discolored even in the monochrome. [4]

Taylor Alatorre: I spent the better part of a week trying to gather my thoughts for a blurb that would weave together digressions on the etymology of "metalcore," the history of abortive nu metal revivals, the performance of masculine self-loathing, and the ethnomusicology of hardcore shows. Had the footnotes ready and everything. Then, after around my 37th time listening to the mini-breakdown before the chorus ("well I cannot fucking wait"), the urge to write had dissipated completely, and the urge to slam had taken hold. I am no longer thinking about what the next word in this sentence will be; I am astral projecting myself from my office chair into a violently teeming mass of bodies that I'm several years too old to safely be a part of. I am at war, I am at peace; I have given up. [7]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

#thrown #music #metalcore #music writing #music reviews #music criticism #the singles jukebox #Youtube

[demonwield]

     Let’s see. . .this is mostly just for ME but I don’t mind showing this here too cause it helps people have an idea of what the blog has in store. 

CONFIRMED VERSES: 

     Sucrose’s Bodyguard || ‘Honorary’ Knight of Favonius(?) || @bonesugar is the one who helped me compile this verse, as it was Asa’s genius brain to come up with it. This is the first verse for Genshin to be made. Akame is tied to Sucrose as her  guardian, and friend. 

     Project Safeguard || Operator Demon Sword || @exrhlab and @medinventive are the two major tie ins for THESE verses. This is the BASE Arknights verse and really the only ones I will go with. The story is driven BY these two and Akame, but side stories can be made / private sub-verses can be formed, however they will always have these two involved. Saria will be gushed at from Akame by your muse, same with Silence, be warned. Also: Project Safeguard is a DO NOT INTERACT verse - it is the origin verse for Operator Demon Sword and how she comes to be as she is, and is only a ‘read’ through for the blog followers to enjoy and suffer with. 

     Canon Events || Akame ga Kill! / Hinowa ga CRUSH! || Anyone who wants to interact with CANON Akame, you need only ask. This mostly is done with @veroxins but anyone can join.

     Isekai || World Displacement || The start of throwing CANON Akame into new worlds: tends to be an easy ice breaker and underpowers or overpowers her per world. Sorry, that’s not really changeable, but tends to be the easiest way for you to meet her in your world, or, you can drag yourself into her world. 

     Modern || Professional Assassin (Cleaner) || Simple as it sounds: a girl who was dragged into the ASSASSIN life in real life, and it t urned her into a professional hit girl. She uses her ‘youthful’ appearance and her funds to come off as either a COLLEGE STUDENT, or, A BUSINESS PROFESSIONAL to get close to her targets, and executes them. In this verse: all goes. She’s stupidly rich, as her organization gives her a Black Card to use for anything she wants (and she rarely uses it for anything past food, housing temporarily, and whatever she needs for the kill), and the bare necessities. She’s extremely tough, but a bit more. . .down to earth. Her speed, resilience, and strength toned back to be ‘human’ but still ‘abnormal’. 

     Fallen || Demonic Assassin || @unhclyblood‘s own LORE BUILT fallen verse for Akame. Akame has died, and become a fallen one: her soul finally sent to hell, but PLUCKED from the torment to become. . .more. She is a DEMON in full nature now, WEAPONIZED as Lilim’s own personal hand picked guard. The very POWERS OF HELL are bore deep into her soul, as well as MURASAME’S SOUL CURSE has been fully weaponized. It can be asked for to rp in this verse, but it’s mostly private and I would ASK BUBBLES for permission first. 

Verses Being Setup

     Honkai Impact - Next game I am giving a try for after MULTIPLE people keep telling me to sit down and play it for a week. 

     Genshin Impact - I have two verses I am setting up, or even just one big one, that is NOT Akame isekai’d into the world, but born IN TEYVAT herself. More info to come over time. 

     RWBY - I am revising her verse for this, she had one a long time ago but I’ve new thoughts and ideas.

     Tokyo Ghoul - My love for this manga has returned, and as such, I am bringing her verse for this back. But I need to fix up some ideas for it. 

     Marvel / DC Comics - It’s not hard to just isekai her or even THROW HER CANON SELF into this, but i’ve fully special ideas for this all. 

     Bleach - Still designing this with my bleach peeps and especially @sung56sun as she’s the core piece of it. I will probably have 2 or 3 even for this as I have many ideas for Bleach. 

     FFXIV - This one is going to take time as I have much like Bleach 2 or 3 ideas. 

     Tower of Fantasy - To be figured out, but I like the lore and world so far. 

     Assassin of the Sokolova Family - @zorkaya​ and I still have MUCH details to go through before this becomes a full verse, but that’s in the future, one day at a time! (And it’s one of my most exciting ones cause Renata’s world building lore is? So in depth? Holy fuck she’s 10/10.)

#In The Shadows Does His Eyes Shine || The Wolf Prowling The Darkness (OOC) #Recorded Tales In The Ledgers Of Time (Verse Infos)

[the-most-inglorious-black-hat]

(Maybe 🤡 💝 and 👪 with Black Hat and the kids?)

What The Hat Kids Are Embarrassed About:

Malvado Is A Character Who Hardly Feels Humiliation When It Comes To Doing Dumb Things Because Malvado Is A Character Who Enjoys Doing Said Things (I Mean, He Took Over The Ask Blog And Knows That’s Stupid Considering Who His Father Is) But A Humiliating Moment? Well, Take It Away, Malvado!

“I Guess Its When I Met Wit’ One Of Those Stupid ‘Fandom-Verse’ Creepypasta’s And Lost A Bet To Some Kid Dressed In A Shitty Link Costume Wit’ Bleedin’ Eyes. Fuck, That Midget Is Annoyin’ And For Losin’ The Bet, I Had Tah Do Whatever The Hell He Wanted Me Tah Do For A Whole Ass Month, No Matter The Time. Can’t Believe I Lost Tah A Link Fanboy Wit’ Emo Fuckin’ Eyes Like Fuck That’s A Burn Tah My Ego AND IT WAS A VIDEO GAME I WAS GOOD AT. Fuckin’ Wannabe Link Drowned So :) Oh And It Was A Contract So Yeah Me Bein’ What I Am, I’m Bound To That Shit Bro And It Fuckin’ Came Bittin’ Me In The Arse. None Of The Fandom Creepypasta’s Are Worth Yer Time, Trust Me, Most Of’em Are Jus’ Pains.”

“Oh And When Dis Pain In My Bloody Arse Comes.”

Spite Is A Character With Grace And Humility But Also Takes Great Humiliation In How Different He Is From His Family.

“I Suppose That My Whole Being Can Be Viewed As An Embarrassment, Dollface, For How I Differ From A House Of Villains……I Am Saddened To Say That I Am Probably More Embarrassed About My Own Image As A Figure Then I Am About An Action I Have Done In My Past.”

Diablo Has No Regrets. He Isn’t Easy To Humiliate.

“Heh Humiliation Is A Gateway To Let People Influence You. I’m Not Stupid Enough To Let It Happen!”

“Well……When I……Spontaneously Transport To A Whole New Universe And Dimension……I……NO!”

Ignacio…Is Complicated.

“I Melted. It Was A Dummy……Thing……”

What They Appreciate! How To Get In Good With Them!

Malvado Appreciates Someone Whose Fun And Bold To Be Around, Someone Whose Willing To Take Risks And Gamble All Odds. He Also Enjoys Someone Who Can Take A Joke And Someone Who Can Tell A Good One Back, Along With People With Extremely Hardcore Natures To Pull Off His Sort Of Stunts And Pranks But You Also Have To Be Somewhat Evil And Enjoy The Thrill Of An Occasional Hunt For A Victim To Torment Malvado Style! Malvado Appreciates Demon Food As A Gift, Along With Dismembered Humans And Of Course, Anything He Can Have Fun With Like A Flame Sword.

“Jus’ Don’t Be A Borin’ Nonody, Ya Know? Like Wicked Ol’ Pops An’ At Times Flug!”

Spite. He Is A Very Passionate Individual And To Get Along With Him, You Can Not Be One Hundred Percent Ruthless Or Evil, Grotesque. Spite Enjoys Taking Care Of His Animals And Exchanging His Interests With One Another. He Likes Attending The Orchestra And Watching The Performers On Stage With Their Instruments! He Also Does Find Amusement In Theater! To Be Honest, You Need To Be Nice. He Gets Along Best With Humans And Largely Enjoys Fashion And Tetris. Spite Loves Flowers As Gifts And Poetry.

“Hun. It Doesn’t Take Much For Me To Be Fond Of You, As Long As You Are Respectful Towards My Wishes”

Diablo Is Like Black Hat. It Is Very Hard To Appeal To Him In A Manner Where He Becomes Fond Of You However A Good Start Is Making Business With Him, Yes A Young Child Whose Business Minded But He Is Also Chaotic As Much As He Is Business Minded (For Reasons). Diablo Doesn’t Like Being Called Just Like Black Hat, So, Don’t Do That, For He Feels As Though Being A Clone Is Almost Pre-determined His Destiny As Being Similar To His Father. He Likes Card Games.

“Hn. Let’s Just Get Down To Business!”

Now Ignacio…..He Likes Anyone At This Age That His Brothers Or Parents Like. So It Would Be Wise To Become Liked Now Before He Grows. Otherwise, Your Fate Is Not Good. Ignacio Likes Art, He Likes Playing Pretend Villain, He Likes Reading Newspapers On Villainy, Ignacio Is Playful, He Loves To Play! Oh And He Is Also Close To 5.0.5, So You’d Need To Be Nice To Him. He Doesn’t Like That His Father Is Cruel Towards The Bear But He Loves His Father And There’s Nothing He Can Do About This. Until Much Later.

“Ohhhh! We Can Have Tons Of Funnnn! Like Playing El Charro! Or Um! Playing With 5.0.5!”

How Their Relationship With Their Parents Are!

This Is A Matter They Don’t Want To Discuss, Ignacio Is The Only One Whose Willing HOWEVER If You Askers Get Close, This Question Will Become Available For Them To Answer!

“I Love Papa! Mama Is Cool But Papa Is Bestest!”

#black hat #villainous black hat #black hat organization #villanos #villianous #lord black hat #villainous oc

[freebiblestudies]

Back To Basics Lesson 26: The Keys To Hades

“Do you want to know why I don’t believe in God, Phillip? If God is so loving, then why would He torture and burn sinners in hell for all of eternity? That just doesn’t sit right with me.”

What happens when you die? Do righteous people immediately go to heaven and sinners immediately go to hell? What does the Bible really teach about the state of the dead? Let’s find out in today’s lesson.

Let’s read together Genesis 2:7; Psalm 104:29; Ecclesiastes 12:7; and James 2:6.

In the beginning, God formed man from dust and the breath of life. When a person dies, the body goes back to dust and the “spirit” goes back to God. Note the “spirit” that returns to God is the breath of life (or God’s power, if you prefer). According to these verses, a soul is a living being. If we were to put this concept into a mathematical equation:

Dust + breath of life = soul

Contrary to popular belief, we do not have souls. We are souls!

Let’s read together Ezekiel 18:4; Ezekiel 18:20; 1 Timothy 1:17; and 1 Timothy 6:15-16.

The Bible uses the word “soul” over three hundred times, but never once uses “immortal soul.” There is no reference to humans ever having immortal souls. According to the Bible, only God has immortality.

Let’s read together Job 17:13; Ecclesiastes 9:10; Psalm 146:3-4; John 5:28-29; and Acts 2:29, 34.

People do not immediately go to heaven or hell when they die. If there is anyone in the Bible who would be in heaven right now, it would be King David. However, the Bible affirms David is not in heaven. Rather, he is dead and buried.

What about spiritual mediums who claim to speak to the dead or all those stories of people communicating with dead relatives?

Let’s read together Job 14:12, 21; Psalm 115:17; Psalm 146:4; Ecclesiastes 9:5-6; and John 11:11-14.

The Bible emphatically states the dead cannot communicate with the living, nor are they aware of what the living are doing. In fact, Jesus compares death to an unconscious sleep.

Then how do we explain all those experiences people have with spiritual mediums or dead relatives?

Let’s read together 1 Timothy 4:1 and Revelation 16:14.

The experiences of those people may have been real, but they were deceived by demons masquerading as their dead loved ones.

Let’s read together Job 15:25-27; Isaiah 25:8; Daniel 12:2; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58; John 3:16; and Revelation 1:17-18.

There are nonreligious people who have no hope beyond the grave. They believe death is the end for them. On the other hand, there are Christians who are fearful of eternal torment in hellfire. Both these groups are wrong.

The Bible teaches the wages of sin is death, not eternal torment. We do have hope beyond the grave. We have a Redeemer who has already conquered the grave - Jesus Christ!

When Jesus comes again, He will grant eternal life to those who believe in Him wholeheartedly as their Lord and Savior. Friend, will you believe what the Bible says about death and resurrection?

#death #resurrection #Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 #bible study #back to basics #state of the dead

[tanoraqui]

okay I have to do this today because even I wouldn’t do it after the godforsaken finale airs, and it’s basically my specialty and I did spend like an hour thinking about it last night while washing dishes. Definitely partly inspired by @words-writ-in-starlight​‘s insightful post on everything Supernatural did wrong, and apologies in advance to all the characters for dragging them into anything related to Christian mythology:

Wei Wuxian’s parents die in a house fire when he’s 6(? I refuse to look anything up) months old

Jiangs are a hunter family I guess? That whole disaster of a family dynamic, except WWX dips out at some point to be idk an environmental activist bc at the time, that seems like the larger threat to the whole world. “Mom and Dad went on a hunting trip and they haven’t come back”, “bitch” “jerk”, 2 brothers in a beat-up old car, you know the drill

Jins are also an old hunting family, but more Men of Letters energy - they have a fancy bunker and do research and avoid getting their actual hands dirty. Jiang Yanli ducked out of the active hunting life a few years ago to be happily married to her peacock and settled down with a baby and she’s fine. We’re not going to bother Yanli. She’s safe and happy and doesn’t need to involved in any of this

so, WWX is the demon blood child developing exciting new abilities like telekinesis, mind control, exorcising demons by sheer force of will...etc, and Jiang Cheng is the Righteous Man. Lucifer, Michael, etc.

s1-3 probably proceeds more or less as spn canon...which I more or less remember...by the time they find their parents at the end of s1, Jiang Fengmian is...ugh, we probably shouldn’t kill him offscreen, I mean, we should probably meet him before he dies. I guess. Madam Yu lasts longer because I’m way more interested in her. But we do know that both Jiang parents are totally inclined to fling the boys into a metaphorical or literal escape boat and go hold the line for as long as possible, so...that’s spn energy...

Xue Yang is the one who’s like “fuck yeah, demon powers” and opens the gates of Hell, because I want him to have nice* things

*nice for Xue Yang

from characterization rather than memory, I’m 90% sure that Dean tried to hide his crossroads deal from Sam, but Jiang Cheng does it...better. I think it does come out, though. Right before the hellhounds do.

here’s where it starts to go farther off from spn canon. Jiang Cheng crawls his way out of the grave, gets stalked by a menacing presence that explodes windows for an episode, incidentally can’t find WWX...*Lan Wangji voice* “I’m the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition” (a baller line then and a baller line now)...and then the next episode starts with them all awkwardly standing around, and JC is like, “ok well let’s go find my brother then”, and you think there’s going to be an mdzs-riffing JC+LWJ Roadtrip To Find WWX...and they’re immediately attacked by like a dozen demons

in fact, the first time we see WWX in s4 is here, wherein he goes toe to toe with an angel and...holds his own. that’s new and terrifying! also is leading a squad of demons??

because here’s the thing: for the last 3(?) months, there’s been war in hell

because unlike Some People Mooses, upon finding out that his brother’s soul was legally nearly-owned by a crossroads demon, heir-apparent-to-Satan!WWX went, “actually fuck that” and kicked open the door of Hell (metaphorically, not loosing any demons this time) and was like, “who do I have to beat the shit out of to get a specific crossroads contract around here”

this did not work, obv. He didn’t know until it was too late, Lilith had already snapped up the contract, etc. etc.

obviously he also tried to offer himself instead, and got rejected for some reason

Since Jiang Cheng died, however, there’s been a war for control of Hell. Leading one side, Lilith, the Original Babe, who wants to break all 666(?) seals keeping Lucifer bound and in the meantime, break the Righteous Man so Heaven won’t even have Michael’s destined host ready for the Final Battle. Leading the other side, Wei Wuxian, infamous upstart, who wants to rescue the Righteous Man and restore him to life, tear Lilith’s guts out through her nose, and also stop her from doing the Lucifer thing because Wen Qing explained that yes, that’s a Thing, and it’s Bad.

Wen Qing! I’ve decided to combine Bela and Ruby’s roles and let WQ be both the cool badass example of how demon deals can go Bad and the demon deliberately leading our heroes astray for most of s3-4. Wen Qing is a very new demon; she used to be some sort of herbalist/witch but then she sold her soul in a crossroads deal to cure her brother of some lingering illness. 10 years of happiness and then boom, hellhounds. WQ is so obviously competent, though, that they (Lilith, I guess?) immediately offers her a job, with the promise threat that gee, that’s a nice brother you’ve got there, even with his Designated Chronic Health Condition getting all relapse-y. It’d be such a shame if something were to...happen to him...

we find this out at some point in last s3 I guess? some Monster of the Week case involves WN as a witness or something, or possible next victim, and WQ shows up to be A Normal Amount Of Invested In This, while desperately trying to avoid actually interacting with her brother (who thinks she’s dead). YES, the truth comes out; YES there’s a tearful reunion

now in s4, Wen Ning is fine actually, health-wise, bc he maybe made a crossroads deal with Wei Wuxian personally, and Wen Qing may or may not have admitted that she’s supposed to be working for Lilith to get WWX ready to host Lucifer? Or potentially that comes out later, idk. Either way, she’s 100% his top lieutenant in this exciting Hell War they’re waging

[insert whatever the hell (ha) happened plot-wise in s4 of supernatural]

we obviously mix up the relationships, too, bc it’s like, *LWJ internal monologue* I’m too young to remember my brother Lucifer as he was before he Fell, but surely Wei Wuxian is his Heir and Destined Vessel in truth, for he is Charismatic and Charming and Makes Me Feel Things, with his Clearly Feigned Righteous Drive and Compassion for All God’s Creatures and - why does heat keep pooling in the lower abdomen of my vessel when I look at his lips, which I am definitely doing a Normal and Not-Weird Amount - I’m just keeping an eye out for the famed Silver Tongue, and not in any way wondering how it would feel in my own mouth -

it’s actually DEFINITELY plausible for Lucifer to still be released even if our designated Heir Apparent is using his demon powers to his full potential and no one’s lying to each other about their motives. You just need to let Lilith be more scary too, and especially bc by “no one” I mostly mean Wen Qing; the angels are still totally hiding the fact that they, too, want to jumpstart the shit out of this apocalypse.  LWJ decides at the last minute that that’s a bad idea actually, gets himself discorporated to send JC to intercept WWX because he accidentally releases Lucifer, etc. etc. Oh yeah, the boys were def fighting before this, bc JC has actually fairly reasonable concerns about the sort of things WWX is getting up to in his quest to become King of Hell...

SO

...I neither know nor care what happens in s5

it does end with both Lucifer and Michael locked in the cage probably, bc I rather liked that solution. Fuck both of ‘em, basically.

I was toying with the idea that WWX also found Madam Yu in whatever hellish torment she was suffering after making a deal so her idiot son(s) would survive, and she was leading forces for him in the war against Lilith as well. If she came back to life somehow, body and all, it’d probably be compelling if she offered her own body to Michael - bc it’s her lineage! - and we’re all led to believe that she’s, uh, being a bitch and actually wants to risk destroying the world in order to destroy all demons...but then she seizes back control and flings herself/Michael and Lucifer into the Pit, because she’s just That Hardcore?

which means we’d actually have had her around and having characterization for most of s4-5, too, which would be fun

More importantly, it ends with newly crowned King of Hell Wei Wuxian appointing Wen Qing as Queen-Regent and ditching to go on an indefinite honeymoon with his new angel boyfriend (they’re going to fuck for like three weeks straight, then roll up their sleeves and go conquer Heaven in the name of free will), and Jiang Cheng gets to live out his hitherto-unknown-to-himself life’s ambition to be the sugar baby of the Queen of Hell. It’s very Hades/Persephone, except he goes back down to the underworld at least once a month. He gets his own demon squad whom he trains up in all the hunting techniques and it’s gr9. Wen Qing is reforming the crossroads deal process to make it more fair to the humans.

the end

Addenda:

it should go without saying but Jiang Yanli is definitely a recurring character, like, at least once a season there’s a filler episode where they go to Jiang Yanli’s for dinner and have to get along as a family, and also do the much easier job of defeating some sort of terrible demon that gets loose in the bunker and turns the evening into a horror movie. She’s their main research/emotional check-in person, a la Bobby, more often appearing in later seasons when there’s, uhhh, more to emotionally check in about.

Jin Zixuan is actually a perfectly competent hunter; he’s just a priss and we don’t Like him

we like Mianmian, though. Oh, I guess the official Hunter’s Guild or w/e tries to declare WWX a public enemy on account of the whole “King of Hell” thing and she’s like “actually what if you’re morons and assholes?” and joins hte team in s4 or 5? Yeah.

idk how the 3zun disaster happens in this ‘verse but I do encourage it to be happening in slow motion as a recurring subplot for several seasons. NMJ is a hunter, LXC is obv an angel, and JGY is...I wanna say one of the more human monsters, like a vampire? Or, you know, something that could be born from JGS sleeping with someone/something he shouldn’t have

#mdzs #the untamed #supernatural #ficlet #my fic #spn #ugh it'll probably fuck up hte bullet points again

[snapeaddict]

I was fairly certain Remus did regret his actions though. He literally tells Harry that he often stood aside and watched it happen without saying anything, and that he wishes he had. In the Prisoner of Azkaban, whenever Snape gives a dig at Lupin or insult him and Harry tries to stand up for Lupin, he repeatedly excuses Snape's actions. Hell, even when Snape tries to reveal Lupin is a werewolf and eventually causes his loss of job, Lupin never hits back, or even tries to defend himself.

I’ll divide my answer into three parts. 

1 - Repentance vs Regret 

So, you are right. I do think Lupin regrets some of his past actions - but the thing is, it seems to make you think he understood the seriousness of his actions/has grown up/is now a better person. And I strongly believe it is not the case regarding the subject of bullying. 

“In repentance, there is a retrospection of the past mistake and a search for a better way so as to not commit the mistake if such a situation arises in the future. In repentance, there is a commitment towards change. Thus, repentance is an act that intends to make one a better person. If you are repenting, it means you are learning from your mistakes and willing to change to become a better person.”

This, does not apply to Remus. We know from the books he never understands and/or refuses to acknowledge what he and his friends did wasn’t justified or deserved; he doesn’t address it as bullying as I explain in this post. Lupin’s behaviour pattern is quite clear throughout the saga: he never or only partially acknowledges his faults and they are always someone else’s doing for the most part. 

“Regret is a feeling of remorse that is a negative emotion as it leads one to think continuously about his past action or behaviour and causes more shame, guilt, anger, disappointment etc.

On the other hand, repentance is a positive emotion as it makes one learn about his mistake, and he vows not to repeat it in the future.”

Lupin gives the image of a kind, understanding and mature person who knows how to put into question is own behaviour when necessary when he tells Harry and Sirius he knows he should have prevented them from tormenting Snape (Chapter 29 of OOTP). But then, as the conversation continues, if you closely analyses his thoughts - he keeps indulging into self-beating and talking about his own behaviour. He is completely self-centred and cares more about the image he gives than about the consequences of his actions and this clearly is the way he functions:

- He is willing to risk Harry’s life by not telling Dumbledore Sirius is an animagus rather than confess he betrayed his trust as a teenager: he cares more about what the headmaster thinks of him than about the consequences of his actions.

- He finds the time to acknowledge he should have behaved better - what a mature reaction - but never acknowledges Snape’s trauma or the seriousness of what was done to him. He thinks of it as a “rivalry”. 

- He puts a lot of effort into burnishing his and his friends’ image by justifying bullying with “rivalry”, “jealousy”, and agreeing with the fact “it was a mutual hate and those are things that happen” rather than admitting they behaved terribly.

So yes, Remus regrets his actions. But it is clear to me he firstly regrets them because it gives him a bad image in front of Harry and Dumbledore, and to himself; he never learns from his mistakes nor can make sure to not repeat them in the future, because he simply refuses to acknowledge them and put his energy into minimising them or making them, for the most part, Snape’s own fault. I find Remus to be a self-centred and cowardly person, and this behaviour goes along with it. 

However, I am not saying this makes him a bad man and understand this is directly linked to the fact he is a werewolf and giving a positive image of himself is nearly vital for him. But clearly, the fact he regrets his actions means nothing besides what I just explained, in my opinion, because Remus refuses to acknowledge what they did. He never repents and we must not mistake regrets for repentance. Remember that being critical of a character doesn’t make him less interesting or likable and has nothing to do with your personal liking of him. Snape isn’t a saint either, it’s actually interesting to have characters with layers. However, Remus was written kindly and “loved” by the books’ narrative and POV; Snape was not.

2 - He still behaves, in his thirties, like a bully

...which shows he does not repent or feel sorry for what was done to Snape and their other victims. I had the chance to discuss this with @ottogatto and she was very helpful and gave me a very interesting insight on Remus’ behaviour as we see it through Harry’s eyes in the books. 

As she explained, nearly every time the subject of Snape is brought up, Remus will subtlely put the fault on him. “He was jealous”, “Your father was more popular than he was and he hated it”, “He was jealous of James’ talent for Quidditch”, “Sirius and James were good at everything and everyone loved them, unlike Snape” are embedded quotes from HP5. Why was Snape furious against him at the end of HP3? “Because he wanted the Order of Merlin”; not because Remus had nearly killed him again as well as three students, just as he had done when Snape was younger. He keeps dismissing the consequences of his actions and justifies (to both Harry and the readers), the abuse Snape went through at the hands of the Marauders. He uses a florilegium of excuses commonly used by bullies that are both very vicious and even pervert in their aims (pervert = lead someone away from what is considered acceptable. Distort or corrupt the original meaning or state of things. Exactly what he does repeatedly). This is still the behaviour of an abuser. If @ottogatto finds the post she made about it, you may like to read it as well. Remus refuses to acknowledge Snape is right to act in the way he does regarding the bullying he went through and thus deepens the hate that already exists between Harry and Snape.

From the (wonderful) @ottogatto: You see, when you tell people how your target is jealous of you, it demonizes them in a shameful way. It tells how they are a pathetic person attacking you wrongfully, oh poor innocent human that did nothing wrong. Jealousy, after all, is a fault that remains completely on the jealous one. It gives your listeners the image that your prey is a mistrustful person while putting you in the position of someone who can be envied -- supposedly for your goodness. Because that prey is framed as mistrustful and ill-intentioned, it allows people to doubt whatever accusation your target might have: either "they're lying", or "exaggerating", or "making things up". Only those who are versed in the mechanisms of bullying -- the easy or the hard way -- will spot the problem. Otherwise, people will find a pretext, a rightful excuse, or an innocent, well-intentioned goal, to keep your prey alone, weak, and "punished".

3 - It is absolutely normal Lupin doesn’t defend himself or hits back when Snape reveals he is a werewolf

...because he is in the wrong. Snape doesn’t even cause his loss of job and you may want to reread the books while not taking Harry’s perspective for the unbiased truth. Dumbledore is obviously the one who asks Remus to resign. Remus just nearly killed three students and a professor, and roamed freely onto both Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade as a werewolf, risking many deaths and infections because he forgot the potion Snape had been brewing for him (he depended on Snape, another reason not to fight with him). Dumbledore just learns it isn’t the first time he betrayed his trust and he did the same for two years as a teenager, risking Hogwarts’s closure and reputation and his position as headmaster, breaking the promise he made to him when he was accepted as school. The worst thing is, it is Sirius who tells Dumbledore. Not Remus. Remus clearly demonstrates he is dangerous in spite of himself - Dumbledore learns as well he hid a very important information from him (Sirius being an animagus) during the year, supposedly risking Harry’s life. Dumbledore doesn’t apologize for Snape’s behaviour when he tells him goodbye and it is reasonable to suppose it is because he is fine with Lupin’s identity not being a secret anymore. 

I understand Snape’s decision (and certainly Dumbledore’s as well, as read in Snape: A Definitive Reading and various clever posts on Tumblr) may seem cruel and negatively impacted Remus in a society full of prejudices; but I understand Snape’s decision as well. Lupin was a walking danger and had proved it countless of times, nearly killing him: I’ll always argue his decision wasn’t a bad one but you may disagree. I’m sorry for Lupin and what happened to him- but I also am lucid and acknowledge the fact he continuously risked people’s lives and was a danger to society at this point (because said society didn’t help him in any way, don’t get me wrong). But to come back to your main point, Lupin was the only one who caused his loss of job, and he had no legitimacy to call out Snape for revealing his true nature to the public, because clearly only this knowledge would prevent him from doing harm in the future. It’s a complicated situation that goes deeper than Remus and Snape’s relationship. 

Lupin could also be deemed as dangerous on another level: he spreads around pro bullying rhetorics and makes it look okay if it was "deserved". He makes bullying less serious if the victim isn't likable. He makes bullying less serious because he is likable. And this is very wrong both in and outside the books.

#Snape meta #Severus snape meta #Marauders meta #Remus Lupin #anti remus lupin #Sirius black #James Potter #anti james potter #Anti Sirius Black #Pro snape #Bullying #Snapedom #Snape community #Severus snape #Harry Potter #Hogwarts #marauders era #Ask #Snape ask

[higuchimon]

Fanfic Writer Interview

tagged me! Took me a while, but here we go! Anyone else who wants to try is more than welcome.

How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently 783. But with September about to start, that's about to jump up.

What's your total AO3 word count?

At the moment 2,668,538. AGain, that's going up starting in September. Also, I have a metric ton I haven't yet posted there from ffnet. I should really get on with getting all of my fics on AO3, tumblr, and Dreamwidth.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

That's a bit tricky becaue of how AO3 classifies fandoms. So let's break this down.

Digital Monsters X-Evolution

Pokemon (crossover with Zexal)

Kingdom Hearts

Harry Potter

Rise of the Guardians

Digimon Savers

Digimon NEXT

Digimon TRI

Mighty Morphin Power RAngers

Digimon Applimonsters

Power Rangers Turbo

Power Rangers

Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds

Digimon Xros Wars

Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boubei LOVE!

Digimon Tamers

Yu-Gi-Oh

Digimon Adventure

Digimon Frontier

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal

Digimon Adventure 02

Yu-Gi-Oh GX

And then there's one Power Rangers fic of mine that spans a good many years and thus counts as three and more subfandoms of Power RAngers. So, the answer is somewhere between twenty-four and twenty-seven.

What are your top five fics by kudos?

Let's see:

Winding Down: Digimon Adventure 02

Lying Hearts: Digimon Adventure 02

Children of the Shadows: Digimon Frontier/YGO GX crossover

Give Me You: Digimon Adventure 02

Silent Contentment: Digimon Adventure 02

Do you respond to commets, why or why not?

I do my very best, even if it's just a thank you. I like knowing that people like what I write. If I didn't want people to like what I write, I wouldn't put it where it can be seen.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I have to choose? Uh... Reversal (GX) doesn't have a lot of happy endings. Reign of the Undead King (Digimon, 02) had a little hope but it wasn't a flawless happy ending. I'm bad with getting things to end so that's hard to say. Readers, what do you think? Which fic of mine has the angstiest endnig?

Do you write crossovers? If so, what's the craziest one you've ever written?

Yes, I do write them. In truth, the one that I think is gonna be the strangest/etc one hasn't been written yet. But it exists in my head and in my heart: the sequel to Prey and Hunters (which I need to rewrite to get to the crossover portion). For those unaware, Prey & Hunters is my original "Yuuri torments Shun for an extended period of time" fic. The crossover part comes when the god Vesta is pulled through an interdimensional rift and finds himself in the world of Arc-V. He's from SilvorMoon's Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boubei LOVE!'s AU (That I am godparent to), and is the god of love. He is not happy to find Shun being kept and tormented. And now I'm gong to shut up before I spoil any readers who might be interested.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

A few, way back in the early days. I think the fact I've never actually cared beyond laughing whenever someone tries to insult me or my writing helped it taper off.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Oh, I write very light smut, mostly Kaiser x Daisuke or Juudai x Johan, though other ones do creep in on occasion (I have alluded to Thing Happening between Fallen Angel Desire and Marufuji Ryou in my Reversal AU). I try to stay light because I also post on ffnet and many of us know what that's like.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I can recall.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have been asked, but I don't remember ever seeing it. But I don't look for fics in languages I can't speak/read (and all I can speak/read is English).

What's your all time favorite ship?

A firm tie between Yubel x Juudai and Ken x Daisuke.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Probably a lot of my Power Rangers ones. I'm not as into that as I used to be so the ideas are quietly gathering dust.

What are your writing strengths?

Apparently I write very good angst?

What are your writing weaknesses?

Being able to write a satisfactory ending.

What are your thoughts on writing dialoge in other languages in a fic?

As I said, I only read/write/speak English, so that's not something I am inclined to do. I would generally just allude to the fact people are speaking different languages instead of writing it out. I'd rather not make mistakes.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I think Power Rangers. That was a very long time ago.

What's your favorite fic that you've written?

I love just about all of my fics! But I really love writing breeds-verse and Reversal (and Hell's Ice and wingfic and Shadow Demons and ...)

Well, that was fun!

#higuchimon posts #fanfic #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #digimon tamers #digimon frontier #ygo dm #ygo gx #YGO ZEXAL #ygo arc-v #ygo vrains #binan koukou chikyuu bouei bu love!

[sasorikigai]

" why the hell did you open your door for me if you're so angry at me?! " -- modern verse >:y

"𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥" 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘴. || @blindedronin || accepting

💥 || It burns; the burden of being alive clawing at his psyche like an uncertainty coming back as if it was the owner of his own body. It reigns above all mellow, feeding on livid blue and purple. It doesn’t want to leave, for it wants to weave into the tangled and weakened strings of his fate and cleaves at his soul made fragile. The persistence of anger he feels is constant; building inside of him like a wildfire burning everything in his wake. Its toxic smoke filling his lungs until he chokes on it. It would always have tendencies to spit toxic waste on anyone that’s close, and Kenshi Takahashi was the unfortunate, yet rightful subject of his vitriol wrath, added fuel being his friend’s seeming nonchalance and phlegmatic calmness to everything. 

The past may be where all the dead things lie; with obfuscated fog of reflection and an unfathomable ocean of misplaced and misdirected feelings. A true thief of his faith, in hope, lest all their trial and error will plunge them both into the throes of incapacitation stemming from severe injuries. Utter perfection is simply a myth bestowed on them; but life always lies in strenuously trying, scrambling on their feet to make ends meet, to pursue righteous justice towards the harbingers of torment and despair. 

That means, whether he likes or not, Hanzo Hasashi will encounter his friend, choked and tensed up, with rivulets of sanguine and feverous sweat coating him as if they had been a permanent layer atop his garments. Somber omen has been filled within his tearful eyes, and the very sight of him had become Hanzo’s own inflictor of torment. Perhaps Harumi’s eternal excruciating suffering will haunt him. Upon such a mocking sight to his trauma, Hanzo Hasashi had stood numb as a statue; stone-cold, frozen in time, wondering what it means to study his madness down to the second. And every lesson would come with a new obsession; revisiting the fundamentals as a tight feeling in his chest lingered as Kenshi’s consciousness precariously remained just enough so that Hanzo’s spirit did not feel threatened. 

“Because there is not a fucking safe place for people like us who have carried angels and demons inside of our bloodstreams, there is no safe for the hunted ones, and there is no safe place when your own body is the site of the storm, but of each other. We find temporal solace in one another, lest we carry our respective battles with us in every breath, in every fingerprint, into every fucking empty bed,” in the middle of nowhere in his mindscape, beneath the silver sky, Hanzo Hasashi stands with stifled tears with tightened, clenched fists, with deaf and silent cry. Perhaps his simmering fraternal feeling towards Takahashi has manifested as brotherly love, as every sight of him weakened would rip every grasp of hope Hanzo Hasashi clings upon. Maybe his unbridled, stifling anger was a pauper’s prayer upon the damned wretched fucking world that continue to take, rob, and usurp. “And I know for a fact that you would do the same for me, if the circumstance had been reversed.”  💥 ||

#✗ the ineffable testimony of spawned hellfire (scorpion) #✗ ugly syllables of conjured vindictive crimson (modern au) #✗ an extraordinary clairvoyance of perception (kenshi || blindedronin) #blindedronin

[queenjunoking]

Wolf Taming pt 40

CW: Noncon - Pain - Manipulation

Z

I was woken up by a gentle knock at the door. I groaned and reached for my phone. It was six thirty. “Come in!”

The door swung open and a maid walked in, carrying a silver tray. “Good morning, Miss Z. Master Ray- Oh!” She looked away quickly and shook. “I’m sorry, Miss Z. I shouldn’t have looked.”

“What are you on abo- oh.” I looked down and remembered where I was. I never received my suit back last night and I wasn’t going to sleep in the dress. So I had just slept naked. I was surprised the maid made a big deal about it, but I suppose Flora and Rayne probably punished them for anything they could think of. “Whatever, don’t worry about it. What do you want?

She carefully avoided looking at me as she brought the tray over. “Breakfast, Miss Z. Waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon and fresh squeezed orange juice.” She placed it over my lap before removing the cover and taking a step back. “Master Rayne has suggested taking the next hour to prepare yourself as you see fit. In an hour Master Rayne and Miss Molly will be here to speak with you, then you’ll begin your… um… trial?”

“Thank you, you can go now.” She curtsied and left the room. I took a few bites of the food, but I wasn’t very hungry. I rarely ate a piece of toast for breakfast, let alone a meal. I just set it aside and took a quick shower, letting the cold water run over my body for a while.

It helped me get my focus. I was here to get Sasha back. Molly’s group had their reputation on the line. A group getting their reputation tanked was as good as done, no one would want to hire Molly again if they didn’t fulfill their side of the contract in a reasonable amount of time. It guaranteed that Rayne couldn’t play tricks and keep the clock going. It also meant that she thought I could break before I got Sasha back.

Flora’s art was horrid and Rayne wanted me to be the final piece of a collection. It wasn’t as simple as Rayne wanting to watch me suffer for who knows how long, she had to believe it was possible. Flora was going to be disappointed when this ended and I got to go home. That disappointment would turn against Rayne, she hated to disappoint Flora. There was no reason to risk it if she didn’t think it was possible to win.

I set aside the tray and went to take a shower. The cold water helped me collect my thoughts. The next few days would be rough, but nothing I wouldn’t be able to handle. Breaking someone worked best when they had no idea what was happening to them. Every breaker worked differently, but once you could identify what they were doing half of the problem was gone. I wasn’t some damsel being kidnapped off the street this time, I knew what was going to happen to me. I knew there was no point in begging during the process, not that I would. All Rayne’s breaker could do is try their best without being able to build off the fear of their target.

Eventually I turned off the water and dried off, I didn’t have much time left. I exited the bathroom and found some clothes on my bed. Nothing spectacular, just some jeans and a plain shirt. It wasn’t that I wanted something flashy, it just wasn’t something I expected Rayne and Flora to have around. They were always dressed up, Flora in various dresses that probably cost as much as a house and Rayne liked her suits.

I picked up the clothes and examined them. No underwear, but I doubt the breaker would keep me in the clothes I had for long, underwear seemed fairly pointless since it would have probably just been cut off.

I left my room and went to go find Rayne. I wanted to get everything out of the way as quickly as I could so things could start immediately. As I walked down the hallway I looked at Flora’s various pieces of art. Rayne’s game was ultimately to have me join them. A present to Flora

It did, however, make my mind start to wander. What methods would the breaker use? I did everything I could to keep the person I was breaking constantly stimulated and unable to cope. They couldn’t subject me to my methods, the contract required breaks. Fear was a popular option, but there wasn’t much that could be used against me. My fears were intangible, someone couldn’t simply drop spiders into the room and expect me to have a breakdown.

I was expecting pain. Rayne and Flora loved to watch people in agony and they were undoubtedly going to be watching the entire time. They were going to pick someone well versed in causing pain because it's what they would enjoy the most.

It was also the least threatening option. Sure, it would hurt, but they couldn’t maim me in a way that mattered or kill me. The fear of dying during the breaking process could be a powerful factor. It helped make the person you're breaking fall in line. It gave them the instinct to do whatever it took to stay alive. No order should be too demeaning, humiliating or painful to follow. The point of breaking should be for them to not even be capable of considering disobedience as an option. Without that threat all I had to do was weather the pain.

After wandering in the halls for a bit, I finally managed to find a breakfast nook that Rayne and Flora were sitting in. Flora noticed me first and waved. “Good morning, Z. We were going to come up and meet you, but this works too I suppose. How about you sit down.”

She gestured to a third seat at the table and I took it. “So how about we start?”

“Eager, I like that Z, but the contract strictly states when we can start.” Rayne looked over at me and took a sip of coffee. “But we can get the formalities out of the way first. You’ll be meeting the breaker I chose for you in a bit.”

“Another one of your little prodigies?” I might as well indulge Rayne in a conversation, it might help her get to the point.

“Unfortunately, no.” I could hear a touch of annoyance in her voice. “Mercy no longer lives in this region, Melinoë’s talents are useless for this particular task, and Arachne has vanished for the moment.”

“That is unfortunate, I’ve never met any of them before. So who did you manage to find?” A maid came by with a cup of coffee I didn’t ask for and placed it in front of me. I took a sip anyway, I didn’t like coffee but caffeine would be nice.

“I decided to look at the breakers at the Auction house. A few of your old colleagues showed interest unsurprisingly. Jax and Yuki were particularly interested in getting to see you again. Their methods didn’t really fit the bill though. Fear and temperature aren’t exactly helpful for this particular task.” Rayne shrugged and took another sip of coffee.

It didn’t surprise me that Jax and Yuki were interested, we never really got along. They were the prime example of a member taking their theme too far. Jax had gone under extensive body modifications to get jet black eyes and demon horns. His private room was set up like a cave in hell. The temperatures were barely tolerable, being over a hundred at all times. He convinced his targets they had died and gone to hell and once they completed the process they were getting a second chance at life.

Yuki worked on the opposite spectrum. White hair, crystal blue eyes, flowy white dresses. She kept her private breaking room barely above freezing. She studied her victims thoroughly, using knowledge of their lives to torment them as they just tried to keep warm. They’d repeat phrases they were given and list wrongs they had committed so it would sink in that they deserved this. The room would get warmer as they learned to follow rules and answered questions the way Yuki wanted them too. It was to show them how good it felt to follow orders.

It didn’t surprise me that the two started to date when I was about to leave.

“Not interested in leaving someone in a freezer?” There was a kind of surreal feeling talking about what kinds of torture I might have been subjected too for the next few days.

“Talk about boring. No, I made a deal with a new breaker at the auction house.” Rayne smiled and took a bit of her toast. I couldn’t imagine what kind of person new to the auction house would take an offer from Rayne that could backfire so easily. They were either very confident or very stupid. “Come now, Z. Not going to ask who?”

“If they’re new to the auction house then I don’t know them. What use is it for me to ask who they are?”

“My, you were so much nicer yesterday when you were just trying to get what you wanted from us.” Rayne pushed her plate away and looked me up and down.

“Be nice, Raindrop. You were just trying to get what you wanted from her as well.” Flora placed her hand over Rayne’s and looked at her. “Who did you get?”

“I think Z wants it to be a surprise, my alluring azalea. How about I wait to reveal it?” Rayne tipped Flora’s chin up to kiss her, but I could see from here that she was pouting.

“Ahem.” That dry monotone voice broke through the moment. I looked over at the door and saw that Molly was standing there. “Good morning Master Rayne, Lady Flora, Z.” She looked around, probably expecting Briar to be here. She simply shrugged and approached the table. “While the contract has been signed and I don’t have to offer you this opportunity, Lady Flora asked me to give it to you since you signed the contract so quickly.”

“And what offer is that?” I looked up at Molly. Her voice was making me feel tired, a feat in itself. She should record audiobooks for people to listen too at night.

“You have one chance to back out of the deal without penalty. The paperwork will be disposed of and it’ll be like this never happened. No evidence will be left behind.” She placed the paperwork back down in front of me to look through, but I just handed it back.

“I’m here to get Sasha back. I’m not backing out.” I glared at Molly, the offer felt insulting.

“Very well.” She pushed her glasses back up her face. “If you would, a maid will escort you to the room you will be spending most of your time in. Everything will begin in ten minutes.”

A maid walked up, curtsied, and signaled for me to follow her. I got up and started to leave without saying another word. Unfortunately Rayne still had more she wanted to say.

“You’ll have to excuse my breaker if they’re a little overeager. I promised them your epithet when they break you. You won’t be needing it once you’re part of Flora’s collection.”

{&}

I had expected Briar to meet me at some point, but she was nowhere to be seen. The maid stopped in front of a door and stepped aside, gesturing for me to go inside. I looked around one final time before I entered. It was probably too much to assume Briar would actually stay, she had nothing to gain by helping me.

The room I stepped into was clinical. White tiles on the floor and the walls. It would be easy to clean them of any blood spilt in here. I saw a few stations set up already. I saw a wooden horse with weights and shackles next to it. Areas for a strappado bondage setups. There was scattered bondage equipment from gags to cattle prods and everything in between.

The room was kind of a mess if I had to be honest. No coherency in aesthetic unlike most breakers. Whoever Rayne hired seemed to be into generic torture instruments. It was unsurprising, it was the only real option on the table to have a chance of winning.

“Good morning, Z.” A cheerful voice came across the room. I watched a blond haired woman walk into the room. She wore her hair in a ponytail and was slightly taller than me. “It’s nice to finally meet you, I’ve heard a lot about you from the auction house. Despite everything I’m going to be doing to you, I want you know its an honor that I get to be the one who finally breaks the Torturer.”

“And you are?” I decided to brush her off. It wasn’t my problem that she seemed to want acknowledgement.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before looking at me. She probably had a short fuse if asking who she was was enough to push her off balance. “My name is Mistress Sonja. Soon to be Mistress Sonja the Torturer. It has a certain ring to it, doesn’t it?”

“I’m sure someone like you would think so, Sonny.”

“It’s Sonja and what is that supposed to mean?” She was already getting frustrated. It would work out best for me if she was. If all she did was inflict pain then she could only do so much at a time. It would be good for me if she went overboard quickly and was forced to have to stop early.

“Miss Z, Mistress Sonja, it is now Eight.” Molly’s voice filled the room. I looked up and saw what was obviously one way glass about a floor up. It was probably to give Rayne and Flora a good view of whatever happened in here on a daily basis. “Our team will now start working to get your slave back, Z. Sonja, you may begin.”

Sonja took a crop off of a nearby table and started to walk towards me. She had a smile on her face I was familiar with. The smile of a person who didn’t get what the point of this process was. Someone who enjoyed it for the wrong reasons.

“So, Z.” She placed the end of the crop under my chin and tried to push me head up a bit, but I didn’t budge. “Hmph. How about you be a good girl and let’s just get started. What do you think is more fun, a hundred lashes or a ride on the wooden pony?”

She really didn’t understand how this was going to work.

I smiled at her, took a step back, then thrust my knee into her gut as hard as I could.

[cookiesupplier]

A Friend Down In Hell - Part Eight

pairing: Nick Folio x ofc (Ishtar)

warnings/tropes: slow burn, pining, idiot in love, language, drinking, mentions of violence, mentions of torture, mentions of religious mythology.

summary: Folio can't quite tell you how long he's been dead, but it doesn't matter when he has friends like his, and Ishtar. Ishtar, with whom he fell in love the moment he met her. The problem? She doesn't know it. How does he convince a demon, who is practically immortal, to date him when he's dead? How did Ellie do it so easily?

author’s note: Unbetaed.. Enjoy!

tags: @spicywhenspeaking @tearfallpixie @cncohshit @nyxthedestroyerofworlds @lyschko666 @bngurngheart @lacktoesandtoddlerants @sorrowsofsilence @collapsedglasshouses @vinyardmauro @dsireland86 @4rtificialfolio @emmmm127 @badomensls @agravemisstake @sunsshinesunny @blackveilomens

Tag lists are open, please let me know if you'd like to be added to this story, the Hell-Verse as a whole, or Everything

“Ellie, Ellie, Ellie! What did she say? What did she say?”

Folio knew that Ellie had spent the afternoon with Ishtar yesterday, she’d left work early so that she could get lunch ready for when Ishtar went over to visit Ellie for lunch. Folio had promised that he and Jolly were more than capable of holding down the fort for the last part of the day. Not only had they not had any souls left on the list, but if they had any random souls popping up out of nowhere, they’d be fine taking care of them. They’d been working together for years anyway and had been fine for the week she’d just not come to work.. But Folio hadn’t said that, not wanting Ellie to feel bad about it. He knew that was an iffy issue, considering what had brought it about in the first place.

If he said anything, he just knew he’d get a look, probably a comment to boot about the whole debacle again, and what he really wanted to know about was what had happened with Ishtar, so he was willing to jump right-over all of that.

“So, come on, don’t leave me in suspense, please?”

Sitting across from her desk, looking to her pleadingly, only for Ellie to glance over to Jolly,

“So, Jolly, guess what?”

No, no, Ellie, please don’t do this to him, she wasn’t really going to do this to him was she? Folio looked over to Jolly for support, please don’t help her, please, please don’t play into this, Jolly, J-man, Joakim, one of his best friends in the whole world, human buddies, sticking together, come on!

“Jolly, help me here man…”

Jolly looked up from his guitar that he was strumming bored today instead of one of his books, Folio just hoped that meant he wanted to be disturbed even less than he usually did, and he’d help him by diverting her back to him.. But then the next thing he did sealed Folio’s fate in the conversation, and he knew it.. Jolly smirked and set his guitar down in its case by his desk.

Crap.

That was not a good sign, at all. He was doomed. Jolly was about to help Ellie torment him, he could tell now. This had to be payback for something, but he couldn’t quite tell what it was, but it was something. Whether it was, for all the times that Folio had spent the mornings wired and hyper day in and out here in the office over the years, or the times Jolly had to carry him home from the bar? Hell, maybe just having to put up with him and his hangovers constantly. Either way, Jolly was about to be a pain in his ass side with Ellie when he needed his buddy on this one.

Groaning, all he could do was watch as Jolly looked over at Ellie as if it were just any other day and not some life altering event in Folio’s Afterlife. It was, thank you! Life Altering, well, Afterlife altering technically as it were, but the theme was still there!

“You’re going to have to give me a hint, Ellie, I could be guessing a lot of things here.”

“Nooooo.”

The giggle that came from Ellie from his dramatics was not appreciated, thank you very much. Yes, he was well aware, but he thought it was warranted considering what she was doing to him.

“Come on, Ellie, please, have a heart here… are you really going to keep this a secret? Are we not friends, the bestest buddies ol’ pals? Please?”

“A hint. Well-”

Ohhhhh dammit! Folio rolled his chair all the way towards her desk using his feet to drag it across the room and propped his head up on her desk, his hands clasped together under his chin, fingers laced together as he begged,

“Please, please, pleeeaasseee Ellie?”

She just looked at him, crossed her arms across her chest and looked at him with a raised eyebrow, she was holding this over his head, and he just looked at her wide-eyed all pleadingly, she had to give him something, anything, right..

“Remember this moment, Folio, the next time you think it’s smart to keep secrets from me.”

Oh, shit.. And he thought Noah was whipped for doing what she wanted over the whole not telling her she was dead, damn, she was good. Jolly snickering from the other table though as he moved to pick his guitar up again got her attention,

“Go ahead laugh, revenge is best served cold, Joakim.”

Oops. Who knows what she might come up with the longer he had to wait, when Jolly looked over at him, all Folio could do was shrug, shit, he couldn’t do anything for him.. She’d just gotten him outright.. As he looked back at Ellie now though..

“Does this mean you’ll tell me what Ishtar said, now?”

Looking at Ellie hopefully, if she wasn’t going to continue holding it over his head while tormenting him about Ishtar, because he really wanted to know about what had happened when she had gone over to her apartment yesterday..

“Nope.”

Folio just stared at her for a moment, a slightly dumb founded, wait.. Wait.. what..

“What, what do you mean, nope?”

Raising an eyebrow and tilting his head slightly as he looked at her hopefully,

“I mean nope.. Ishtar is my friend now, and she-”

“But I was your friend first! You said, and I quote I’m like your little brother, which makes us family! Ellie! Family first! Right Jolly? Family first! Ha!”

He pouted as she looked at him,

“I’m staying out of this.”

Jolly sat off to the side strumming his guitar but his focus very much on the tennis match of a conversation that was happening between the two friends when it came to the issue at hand.

Folio just shook his head at that, of course he was,

“Coward.”

Not wanting to risk invoking Ellie’s revenge for his part in the time she didn’t know she was dead before it was due, obviously.. Folio sure as anything hoped now he’d gotten his he was done and dusted his comeuppance with that, please and thank you!

“Come on Folio, she’s the first real girlfriend I’ve made here, and besides, if I tell you everything that she said, then it’s just as creepy as if you stalked her.. This way I can give you a gentle nudge.”

Smiling to him… a gently nudge? Huh… Folio could only hope it would be in the right direction!

He was really not any good with directions.

“Okay, one question though, one.. The reason she hasn’t asked me out-”

“I’m not telling yo-”

“I haven’t finished!”

Taking in a breath, now he had to get this right, otherwise Ellie wasn’t going to give him anything at all, and she’d just leave him hanging out to dry, he could tell now, she was being a stickler, and argh, he couldn’t entirely blame her for that.. Frustrating! It would, however, be like him trying to keep a secret for Noah, from her, horrendous. In his defence, he’d known Noah for years.. But she was right, while she had other friends, he’d noticed a lot of the girls she’d talked to, seemed to flit around her to talk to them, and it was sad. He didn’t think Ishtar would do that to her, not his girl. She wasn’t that kind of type!

“So, her not asking me out, I’m not asking if she wants to or not, okay, I, am just wondering, if the bar was a factor in her choices of… any… at all…”

He cringed.. Yea, dammit, he was no good at this.

Ellie looked at Folio as he cringed, only to see him groan at himself and then lean over her desk and then proceed to bang his forehead with a sigh. Poor Folio, he was really, bad at this, he’d been trying to get the girl for five years, and he couldn’t even ask one question without asking up front.. She could tell what he wanted to know, did she want to date him, and had she not asked because he had only ever seen her at the bar, at work, like Ellie suspected? Ellie knew the answer, but telling Folio that she’d love to go out with him, would just make this too easy for him.. No.. Ellie thought he needed to work for it. Five years, sure, but five years of shot challenges? A girl deserved to be asked properly!

“She doesn’t date or socialise with anyone from the bar, she made an exception for me because I asked to meet her outside of bar hours.”

Smiling slowly as she also remembered the other reason,

“That and I also might have terrified Tony a little by mentioning Lord Sebastian being disappointed when he wasn’t being very cooperative. That certainly put a spring in his step.”

They had laughed something wonderfully about that, even talking about some of the horrible managers that Ellie had had to deal with during the few times she had been able to get work while she was alive. Now though, the guys were snickering at the idea that Ellie had name-dropped, especially after what Folio had said about the manager of the bar the other night, he seemed like a right gem after all.

“But that golden ticket has been used up, if you want a chance Folio, and I say if because Nicholas Folio,” “Ohhhh Folio, she full named you, run while you still can man.” Jolly smirked as he strummed a tune with his guitar, and Folio just shrugged at him while Ellie kept going ignoring them both, he liked that Ellie was being protective of Ishtar, he loved it, and told him that she was going to fit right in.

“If I find out that you have half-assed this, so help me, I will grab my bat and kick your ass six ways to Sunday. I will make you wish you were back in a punishment realm, understood?”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

He gave her a playful salute in reply with a small smile. Ellie sat back in her chair with a small chair, and smiled slightly, Folio looking at her expectantly,

“What?”

“What? What do you mean, what? Nothing else? No plan, no nothing? All we have now is that I need to see her outside the bar, and I’m right back where I started, stalking her.. I don’t want to be a creepy stalker Ellie!”

She nodded to him,

“I know.. Be patient, Folio, be patient.”

He pouted at her then,

“Five years, Ellie.. Five years.”

That just made her smile even more,

“Then waiting just a little longer isn’t going to hurt, now, is it? Trust me, Folio, trust me.”

When Folio was all jittery and frustrated after that, Jolly ended up just kicking him out of the office and sending him home, telling him to just go run it off, something. He knew him though, Nick would likely take his bike out for a ride, and it would help him unwind. Turning to Ellie now, he sighed,

“Please tell me you actually have a plan, and it's not really, the universe will provide or some shit.. Because his head is about to explode. I know I can have some extremely chill vibes.. Sometimes.. But you’ve seen him, the thought that Ishtar has even noticed him, let alone considered dating him, had him so excited I’m almost surprised he hadn’t turned into a puppy and just peed all over the place. If he was a demon, he might have.”

Ellie laughed, and he chuckled along with her, but he wasn’t really joking, he was dead serious, he thought he would have done it!

“Thank god humans can’t shape-shift on that one..”

Agreeing with her one hundred per cent, Jolly leaned back in his chair.

“Yea, that would be a sight for sure, but no, seriously, you and Ishtar talked about some idea right, something to give our boy a nudge in the right direction, something Sweetheart?”

Jolly just scrutinised her for a moment, as Ellie smiled softly,

“You realise she’s left him breadcrumbs over the years, right? Folio has just, not noticed, or been wilfully obtuse? They’ve talked about things, things that she’s liked, things that she enjoys doing.. Events she planned to go to over the years…”

He groaned, Folio, that ridiculous little idiot, so it was right in front of him this entire time, he didn’t need to stalk her, he could have just taken her hints and gone to check out literally any of these things that she liked and viola, hope to run into her there. However, his worry about her seeing him as a stalker, always put him off, when she was always wanting him to take the initiative. He didn’t want to be a barfly, and she didn’t socialise at work..

“Well, talk about a clusterfuck.”

“So, instead, she is going to just happen to cross his path on her own, thanks to me telling her where he likes to hang out directly.. She isn’t worried about the stalk factor after five years of shots and flirting.”

Jolly chuckled, good for her, she was willing to take a risk, and knowing Folio, he wasn’t even going to question it.. Well.. no.. maybe he would.. But he would just thank his lucky stars and may kiss the ground Ishtar and Ellie walked on.

“And the hope, is maybe, if they start talking outside the bar, and she talks to him about things, and invites him to things without the bar.. He’ll get more of a hint! He is going to have to work for it, though, girls gotta have some fun.”

Jolly hummed thoughtfully, thinking about the possibilities of what could come.

“This is Folio, how many years? She can hint, and we’ll just smack him around with your bat, either way he’ll get the idea eventually. We’ll make sure of it.”

With her bat, or a sledgehammer, whatever worked.

Dividers by @saradika-graphics

#nick folio #nick folio x ofc #original female character #original character #demons #bad omens #fanfiction #bad omens fanfic #folio #hell au #hell verse #fic: a friend down in hell #bad omens cult #bad omens band #bad omens fanfiction #bad omens fic #nick folio fanfiction #nick folio fanfic #joakim jolly karlsson #noah sebastian #nicholas ruffilo

[thedetectiveofinaba]

@trickstersshadow asked: 5. What is an aspect of your muse’s canon material or canon existence that you never had the opportunity to explore but really want to? 14. What is your ideal AU for your muse?

Questions for Muns of Canon Muses / accepting

5. What is an aspect of your muse’s canon material or canon existence that you never had the opportunity to explore but really want to?

Naoto's dynamite-like temperament and how she's well aware of her whiplash reactions and how they affect the impression people have from her. The Hospital Scene is the crown jewel in P4 timeline and her general mood shift during her darker verses (P5 AU and its variation Solo Thief Velvet!P5 AU). Don't assume me to go to deep details before the events of P5 since I don't know how to write mental torment properly nor want to focus on too angsty details (or make it outrageously extravagant, I think that everyone knows how mental abuse is Hellish and believe in less is more and show, don't tell), but the moment she can see the light at the end of the tunnel is sth I want to describe and cherish.

1/4 angel!AU is a close second in her temperament showing since it also has dead parents AND paranoia of her being the literal Harbinger of Death to her loved ones. She tries to have a calm and professional impression to people who cooperate with her but the moment a demon insults her or her mother she's going to from 0 to 100 and shoot the target and brag how she was superior in the end and should've seen what was coming.

14. What is your ideal AU for your muse?

Probably HP AU, Pkmn AU or 1/4 angel!AU (+ modern AU once I get energy to finish that). HP AU is the calmest one but the two latter ones show character development potential and are interesting as Hell to write. She has close ties to her British family in all of them & less of the gender dilemma which works only in the P4 setup.

Mind you, all of them still have dead parents because I believe that some facts on Naoto are sth you should never change: lack of parents and how it shows in her, the effect of sexism and family assumptions and close ties to her roots + pride on what she is and Lawful Good/Neutral allignment she has.

#queue line #queue [paper pile] #trickstersshadow #ask answer #ask answer [you received a message] #askbox answer #askbox answer [shirogane speaking] #/i've written naoto's whiplash nature for the said au and dear god it's stellar

[hcpefulmarshmallow]

Time for some long, unnecessary Meta. I’ve had this one in my brain for ages, but I haven’t really had an excuse to talk about it until recently. Identity isn’t a major theme in Nagito’s character (although it plays it’s part), and so, I’ve been putting this one off. Then, my good pal Ashi had to go be a literary genius and incorporate some really interesting things into their Gundham, and now I have all the excuse I need. So I’m going to be talking about him, too, to a marginally lesser extent, using aspects of the Best Gunny’s characterisation. (Seriously though, plug. I’m not even sure it’s possible to follow this blog and not know about Ashi’s Gundham, but on the off chance: @the-taboo-king.)

 Under a cut for length, philosophy, and shameless, shameless Roulette.

 This is the part where I say something that makes the reader’s eyes glaze over, but indulge me. No Exit is a 1944 existentialist French play by Jean-Paul Sartre. It’s about three people - Garcin, Inez and Estelle - who are all doomed to hell, except hell is just an ordinary room, and it’s really, really good. I’d highly recommend. 

 The characters spend much of the start of the play sitting around, waiting for Satan to show up with the hot pokers and the lube, but once the three of them are gathered in this room, nothing happens. All they can do is sit there, get to know one another, and watch the people they left behind on Earth live out the rest of their lives and move on. There’s nothing there except three chairs; nothing else for them to do. It’s explicitly mentioned that hell has no mirrors, so for instance, when Estelle wants to fix her makeup, she has to rely on Inez to tell her if it looks alright or not. The trouble is, Inez is really attracted to Estelle, so Estelle has no way of knowing if Inez is telling her the objective truth or not. Furthermore, Estelle is kind of grossed out at the thought of another woman being attracted to her, so she starts flirting with Garcin. Not because she’s especially interested in him, per se, but he is the only man there, and Estelle thrives on male attention. 

 Garcin doesn’t seem to want much to do with either Inez or Estelle at first, preferring to focus on watching his wife try and cope with the terrible reputation he left behind. However, eventually she, and everyone who knew him, dies or moves on. It becomes like he never existed, as it does for them all. 

 Garcin accepts Estelle’s advances, but it’s not her attention he wants. It’s Inez’s. She’s furious, jealous, and ready to throw some hands. Inez’s fixation remains on Estelle; Estelle’s on Garcin; and Garcin’s on Inez. Things become vicious between the three, until, at last, the door to hell opens. Garcin has the chance to leave, but he doesn’t. 

 The play is especially famous for the line “Hell is other people”, and directly opposes the old adage, “I think, therefore I am”. It posits that humans exist because we are seen, and therefore if we are unseen, we do not exist. At this point, Garcin has become dependent on his feud with Inez. He might be forgotten in the world, but as long as she hates him, there’s a him to hate. The absence of mirrors removes the characters’ abilities to reflect on themselves, so they can only experience themselves through one another. In that sense, their purpose here isn’t solely to be punished, but to punish one another for all eternity. 

 So, what does this have to do with Dangit Roomba 2, the game where everything’s made up and the deaths don’t matter? Like I said, this play has been in the back of my mind for a while when it comes to writing Komaeda, but it hasn’t been explicit enough for me to justify writing oodles about until recently. So before we talk about Nagito, let’s talk about the man, the myth, the hamster dad himself. 

 Identity is a major theme for Gundham. He cultivates his own very, very carefully, only breaking character here and there either to adjust himself (and comment on a “good line”), or when he’s flustered and his composure slips just a little bit. Given how much effort he puts into his words and appearance, you’d be probably correct in assuming he wants to be seen a certain way. He appears to thrive off the fear and intimidation he inspires, yet despite demanding “silence and solitude”, he seems to crave companionship, and find it best in those who can easily reconcile his demonic persona with the kind, nurturing person he is underneath, as opposed to people who try and see directly through it. He needs that persona, you see. He can’t cope with it being stripped away. I’ve spoken about Gundham’s tendency to play the bad guy even when he is, objectively, the hero, before, so I won’t belabor the point too much. But what I’m driving at here is, who he is, and how he’s seen, are too intricately linked to be separated.

 If you recall, the door to hell opens and Garcin has the chance to leave, but he doesn’t. 

 I can think of no better example than the ideas in No Exit, and the intricacies of Gundham’s character, falling into place better than Ashi’s future verse. Which is really, really good, and a masterful take on the philosophy of identity. When Gundham shatters the mirrors and covers the reflective surfaces in his living space, he is effectively robbing himself of the ability to see himself. He’s forced into the vulnerable position of his identity being placed in the hands of others. With no way to reflect on himself - literally and symbolically - he has to take what others say to him as is. Rely on other people to cultivate his appearance and judge what he can no longer see, and therefore, alter. Coupled with his persistent, subsequent self-aggrandizing and deprecation, and he’s submitting himself to the torment of being made into the villain of this story, no matter what he does from hereon out. 

 You see, the world isn’t in despair anymore. He’s been given a second chance. The door to hell is open, and Gundham has the chance to leave, but he doesn’t. 

 Like Garcin, he becomes reliant on the fight. The constant struggle against people who will see him in the worst light possible, no matter what he does. But unlike Garcin, Inez, Estelle, or even Nagito - and we will get to Nagito - he isn’t forced into this state, for survival or for punishment. At least, not by a third party. He’s condemning himself. He’s robbing himself of the ability to improve, or to see himself improve. He doesn’t think he deserves to. He relies on others to validate who he is, because others have always let him down. Always seen him as the villain.  The weird kid. The one not worth including. He’s waiting to be told, “Actually, you’re a bad person and I don’t want to be near you”. He’s waiting to be abandoned and left alone because, when there’s no one left to see him, he will, effectively, no longer exist. He’s given up on a meaningful, extraordinary death, opting to instead languish in the depths of oblivion. For someone who has grappled for years to forge an identity he can live with (again, that other meta I did on him a while back), this. This is hell. 

 Now that I’ve outed myself as a secret Gundham Tanaka stan blog, let’s talk about his boyfriend. Identity is less a key theme for Nagito, and more a background element to his character. So it hasn’t been something I could justify a thousand-odd words on so far. But now I have an excuse, I’m going to talk about the single most underrated ship in all of Dimple Raddish. Like I usually do. Look, there’s been a semi-recent semi-surge on popularity for Roulette in the fandom, just let me ride it out, okay? As someone who doesn’t shut up about these two, I have no idea how much of it I’m responsible for, but I am arrogant enough to take more credit than is due, so. You’re welcome, fandom. 

 For all the things Nagito is awkward and dumb at dealing with (see: All The Things), helping Gundham cope post-tragedy is one thing he does pretty effortlessly. Because what Gundham needs is what Nagito has in perpetuity: relentless, unyielding love. The only way Gundham will ever face himself again, is if he’s forced to believe there’s something worth facing. There is an opportunity in seeing himself as others do. He can see the good things he’s never let himself acknowledge before. 

Now’s as good a time as any to say: this is not a healthy way to be. And I’m not trying to imply that the love of the right person can cure years of trauma and abuse. But you know what can help? Being treated with some basic decency and respect. And heck, even love. Gundham is not a role model, and Nagito, less so. He’s a morally ambiguous, deeply damaged young man. He can’t really be fixed. But he can be given the support he needs to heal.

 This is the inevitable part in all my long metas where I lament that Nagito’s childhood was loveless, and robbed him of the ability the feel any kind of self-worth. That he’s rendered incapable of recognizing his own needs much less putting them first, as a result of them never being met. That he’s a good person who deserves a good life, and despite having been through insurmountable hell, it’s a wonder he came out the other side so, very capable of selflessness. And that it’s tragic his biggest wish in life is to just know how to feels to be loved in any way by anyone, just to have the most basic, fundamental human experience. F in chat. 

 Nagito has interests, and hobbies. He...reads, sometimes. He likes dogs. His luck ruins everything. But when he isn’t encouraging others to chase that One True Hope, what is he actually doing? What would he be doing if he never attended Hope’s Peak? Given how many times he’s been treated like a burden, can he ever truly feel like he’s worth something to anybody?

 There’s a sense of static around him, I feel. Like when the video quality suddenly drops, and it takes you a moment to realise. Who is he, exactly? The answer is simple and sad: whoever he’s told to be. He’s spent his life being treated like his feelings are a burden and he’s useless trash, therefore he is burdensome trash. In class he is often ignored and ridiculed, so he largely keeps to himself during group activities, and whenever he says something out loud, he often scolds himself for it before anyone else can. You know, that whole, “Haha sorry, that was a bit much, guess I’m just trash” thing he does. He has to be this way. For his own survival, for whatever sanity he has left. It’s easier to be treated like garbage if you believe you deserve it.

 It’s normal for people to be different around different people. But I find that to be especially true with Nagito as I play him through different relationships with different people. The more he is with Gundham, the more his nurturing, animal-loving side comes out. The more he is with Celeste, the more we see his intelligent, competitive, gentlemanly side. With Sonia, his ability to be princely and adventurous; with Chiaki, his gentle and relaxed nature, with Yuuki, or the WoH, or literally any child under his care, we experience a strong paternal side to him. He is by no means a different person, but different aspects of his personality are given more dominance over him as a whole, based on what somebody sees in him. He’s very capable of stepping up, but only when he feels someone expects him to. Otherwise he’s content to sit on his hands and watch, because he doesn’t think he deserves anything better. 

 Nagito will not see these things, or anything especially good, in himself until he is given permission. Until he is made to feel, by an authority higher than himself, that it’s okay. He exists as others see him. If someone he looks up to, whose opinions he values, recognises the - for lack of a better term - hope in him, he will eventually be forced to accept that it’s there himself. He might even. You know. Develop enough self-respect one day to forge a more self-actualised identity. Have the audacity to want things, and have dreams and stuff. He might even follow them. It’s a long, tiresome, non-linear process; but a worthwhile undertaking if I say so myself.

 I guess the tl;dr here is that: both boys validate themselves through the eyes of other people because it’s the only way they know how. It’s not a good or healthy thing to do, but with the right kind of support, and enough time and patience, maybe next time the door to hell opens, they’ll have the courage to leave. 

#( this wasn't as in-depth as i'd have liked #i could have kept going but the word count bro #so imma just leave it like this and hope i've made my point ) #meta; #long post;

[sophiamcdougall]

OK well @pensierosatanista​ said “Translate something from the Scapigliatura but then did not tell me what that was! Or anything about it! And it’s not like I know! I have been only able to read Fancy Italian, to the extent that I CAN read Fancy Italian at this level for... a few weeks?? I don’t know things about Italian poetry! So anyway I hope you are happy, @pensierosatanista​ because I had to do RESEARCH and this was HARD! So this poem has me somewhat torn between “Okay I get it, you’re FOURTEEN and ANGSTY” (he was apparently sixty years old) and “...the rosary! The boredom of God’s long joy! Fine,  I’ll go ahead and swoon over that for a bit.”  Dualism 

I am light and shadow, angelic Butterfly or unclean worm I am a fallen cherub Damned to walk the earth Or a leaping demon Straining his wing Towards a distant sky. And hence in inmost Cogitation do I hear The blasphemy of the angel Mocking his own torment Or the humble prayer Of the exiled demon Returning in faith to God. And hence I am charmed By the headiness of a song And hence I am torn By the anguish of a tear And hence the smile That twists my face Or swells my heart. And hence the murky Tumult of my thoughts Some rosy-sweet Some violent, black And hence, with weary Toil, I shift the meter That animates the verse O frail creations Of the all-powerful genius! Perhaps we are the homunculus Of a deranged chemist. Perhaps from mud and flame For some idle game A dark god made us And threw us on the damp Soil that binds us Then peering at us from his skies Laughed at the crazy scene And one day, to ease the boredom Of his long joy, Will crush us with his foot. And we live, famished, On faith and other tricks Turning the monotonous Rosary of the years Where each bead shines With weeping, bitter droplets Made of bitter pain. At such times that I am The redeemed and rising demon I feel spread from my soul A pious hope And on my dark face From joyous heaven Blazes forth the sun. Illusion … dragonfly Kissing the little flowers Illusion … squirrel Dancing among the pines, Illusion … maiden Scheming and toying With the fibres of the heart,

Again she comes, To smile at me On the saddest and most lonely days And pushes my soul To songs, to poems, to flight And draws me whirling Into the deep coil Of the inventor imagination And I dream of an ethereal Art That perhaps in heaven holds sway, Free of crude chains Of form and meter Full of the ideal That lets me beat my wings And which I cannot follow. But if then once more The listless angel wakes The holy dreams fly Frightened and sad And then, before the rays Of the altered mirage Almost ravished, I stand. And then I dream of magical Circe with her train Of elks and leopards, astonished In their guilty enchantment And I scorn the sky’s impervious height And I feed on pride and poison And I dream of a renegade Art That waylays my thought Behind the low images Of a truth that lies to Truth And in harsh lines submerged Upon my lips the verse Arrives – with a heretic curse This is life! The foolish Life that seduces us So slow it seems a century So short it seems an hour A panicked swinging Between paradise and hell That never rests! As a jester on a tightrope Finds grandeur in equilibrium Above the greedy mob Hankering for risk, Such is the human, hovering Between a dream of sin And a dream of virtue.           — Arrigo Boito 

#I really tried to find a justification for not translating “cogitazioni” as “cogitations” but I literally could not #Italian #Translation #italian poetry

[confrontingbabble-on]

“The first pillar of Christian Deconstruction is: The Bible. This is odd since one would assume that the foundation of the Christian faith would be “Christ“, but that’s not the case...For most Evangelical Christians, especially, the Bible is their authority, and they will gladly affirm this if you’re uncertain about it.

Because Christians tend to base their faith on the Bible...once you start to doubt their claims that the Bible is inerrant and infallible, the rest of your faith is soon to crumble.

And it’s not very hard to prove that the Bible is indeed filled with errors, mistakes, contradictions between prophets, discrepancies over details, and even misquoted Bible verses. [Not to mention all the words intentionally left out of the text or mistranslated to oppress women and demonize homosexuality, or the handful of epistles in the New Testament that are most certainly forgeries or pseudapigripha, for example].

So, if your Pastor has ever told you that the Bible was 100 percent accurate about everything and if even one thing was proven false then the entire Bible would be worthless [and I have heard exactly that on numerous occasions from the pulpit], then it only takes one of those examples above to start pulling on the thread that eventually unravels your entire Christian faith.

The second pillar is: Eternal Torment [Hell] Once you start to doubt the absolute accuracy of the Scriptures, it’s a short walk to questioning the validity of Eternal Torment in Hell for those who don’t pray the prayer and join the Christian club. For some, Hell is their first thread of doubt and once they realize that most of those verses in the New Testament that we were told are about Eternal Torment aren’t actually about where anyone goes when they die, the rest of their faith starts to buckle.

I know one person who started to examine the traditional doctrine of Eternal Suffering and totally left the faith after realizing: The Old Testament never mentions this doctrine at all*...(!)

The doctrine of Eternal Torment originated in the Intertestimental Period [between the OT and the coming of Jesus]

*The language often used by Jesus to talk about worms that do not die and fire that is not quenched are actually borrowed language from OT prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel who said exactly the same thing to those in Egypt, Syria, Edom and Jerusalem – but in every case those prophets were speaking about invading armies who would take them into captivity, not about where they go after they die

The Pharisees embraced the doctrine of Eternal Torment after picking it up from pagan sources which gained influence in Rabbinical teaching after the OT was written...

Sadly, my friend abandoned their entire faith – the Gospel, Jesus, the Resurrection, the Incarnation, etc. – based on this realization that Hell wasn’t what they were told it was.

I’m sure there are many others who are in the same boat.

The third pillar of Deconstruction is: Penal Substitutionary Atonement [or PSA]. This is a theory that is relatively new and was only arrived at after several centuries of Christian thought and debate on the topic. PSA would never have been formulated if not for those previous theories of Atonement which came before it, as each of those theories tended to develop after various theologians wrestled with the implications of the existing atonement theory of the day.

Simply put, the PSA theory says that God’s wrath was so great against mankind’s sinfulness that Jesus had to come and take a bullet for us – receiving the full fury of God’s burning wrath on the cross – so that now God can love us and forgive us.

In this view, Jesus mostly saves us from His Father, not from our sins or from hell. This also paints God as a monster who responds to his children with anger and fierce violence...

Which brings me the fourth pillar: Suffering in the World. Now, for many people, this is numero uno...and rightly so. Even renowned theologian and apologist David Bentley Hart concedes that this question is the single most difficult question for a Christian to answer.

“If God is good,” we wonder, “why do children suffer and the innocent die?”

I would hasten to point out that most of the suffering in our world is man-made, and that we have the resources to solve problems like world hunger, war, famine, most diseases, etc., but we have not made those things our priority. Maybe instead of asking why God allows these things to happen, we should ask ourselves why we allow suffering to continue?

Our fifth pillar is: The End Times Hype. If you live long enough, like me, you’ll start to notice an embarrassing yet consistent string of failed prophecies concerning the return of Jesus and the End of the World. After awhile, it gets hard to believe that anyone really knows what the Bible says about this topic at all and you begin to loose faith in your leaders, Bible teachers and pastors who just keep making these predictions, or falling for them.

Soon, you just walk away and realize that it’s all about fear and control and selling you the latest book on End Times Prophecy which will soon end up in the bargain bin at your local Christian bookstore.

Our sixth and final pillar is: The Church. This one is a little broad. I know people who read Frank Viola’s book “Pagan Christianity” a few years ago and ended up quitting their pastoral jobs and eventually left the faith altogether. Why? Because that book, and others like it, showed them that Church-As-We-Know-It was inspired by Pagan worship practices and modeled after a system of hierarchy and control; and looks nothing at all like what Jesus and the early Christians actually practiced for the first 300 years.

For some, the Church pillar falls because they just get tired of being abused by those in authority over them, or called “Heretic” for asking too many questions, or labelled degenerates for being LGBTQ, or turned off because of the political entanglements they see in their fellow Christians.

Either way, once that pillar falls, it’s not very long before one of those other pillars also falls and what’s left isn’t much to hold on to...”

Keith Giles was formerly a licensed and ordained minister who walked away from organized church 11 years ago...

From https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgiles/2019/08/the-6-pillars-of-religious-deconstruction/

#nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity