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melishade · 24 days

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Attack on Prime Autobot Anthology: Experiments

Main Story

Comfort

Matrix of Leadership

Titans and Energon

Holiday Celebration

Hanji and Wheeljack conducting experiments together.

The video had come to life, causing Hanji to step away from it and look at the literal reflection of themselves. They flailed their arms around, moving rather comically to get the frame to mirror their movements.

"Hanji," Wheeljack had called off-screen.

"Right, sorry," Hanji apologized, "This is a continuation of our experiments."

"Day 14," Wheeljack clarified.

"Day 14," Hanji repeated, "And we have made some interesting progress over the past few days. First trial of using diluted energon from Eren Jaeger within the 3D gear."

The video cut to the gas tank on the 3D gear model expelling a gray steam. "The trial lasted about 30 minutes to an hour. The gas was able to expel consistently at max volume without any issue. And it was only with a few rocks worth of Eren's diluted energon crystals."

The video cut back to Hanji. "There was however one incident where Wheeljack inputted the wrong sample into the 3D gear-!"

"It looked the same!" Wheeljack exclaimed.

"Check your optics you old bastard!" Hanji yelled at him before turning back to the camera, "Basically the 3D gear with a high concentration of energon blew up on us."

The video quickly cut to the device blowing up and Wheeljack protecting Hanji from a 3D gear explosion, before it cut back to the mad scientist. They lifted up their hair to reveal a scratch on their forehead.

"I nearly got shrapnel in my brain!" Hanji pointed to the scar before letting their hair loose, "Now normally it would be wise to go straight for the energon and utilize that. However, energon is still a highly dangerous source, and we have to be extremely careful, or else I could be killed in these experiments. While we're trying to measure the correct size of energon to put into a normal 3D gear, we're testing out how effective the diluted energon is. In the event that we can't make the modifications in time before an invasion, then we can be prepared for the next best thing."

"Don't doubt my power, I can make those adjustments in time," Wheeljack reassured.

"Sure but finding out the right amount is the problem," Hanji reasoned, "Upgrading the 3D gear to Cybertronian metal would be a great benefit, but-!"

"I'm still trying to understand the details of that thing," Wheeljack reminded.

"But! We've managed to perfect the energon spear!" Hanji exclaimed with excitement as they ran out of view, "Grab the datapad Wheeljack!"

Wheeljack chuckled as the screen began to shake. The view was obscured grass before Hanji's table of experiments came into view. They showed off the energon spear to the camera with an unhinged gleam in their eyes. They equipped the spear on the handle of the 3D gear before aiming it at a tree and firing. The energon spear launched from their equipment, leaving a trail of blue behind. It made contact with the trunk of the massive tree and exploded on contact. Hanji and Wheeljack shielded their faces as the tree toppled over and hit the ground hard, causing it to shake.

When Hanji and Wheeljack adjusted their gaze to the sight of the destroyed tree, the Commander of the Survey Corps cheered with delight.

"Look at it! Wheeljack look at it!" Hanji squealed.

"You want to make energon grenades?!" Wheeljack asked, adrenaline running high.

"Yes, but another day! This is so exciting, ah!"

The video ended, showing Wheeljack sitting alone in the neutral ship. He looked back at his table to see one of the many projects he had to complete before Marley arrived on the shores of the island. He could get this done. He's been through worse. He...he just missed the days where it was just him and Hanji experimenting. It was the most fun he's had in a while.

(Finally got this one done. Hooray! Anyway, back to prompt asks!)

#attack on prime #transformers prime #tfp #attack on titan #aot #snk #shingeki no kyojin #ao3 #hanji zoe #tfp wheeljack #wheeljack #autobot anthology #maccadam #macadam

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mariacallous · 7 months

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Now that I'm home, face wiped off, bra off, changed into pajamas, let me tell you about this dogshit meeting.

First, some context: I've mention our overall team director, the one who's been on vacation for easily a month and a half of the total time I've been working for the city (since the end of Feb) and who also as a Reasonable Accommodation to work from home outside of the permitted 2 days per our union and the pilot program the city launched so some weeks she's literally only in the office one day, and then she has so many meetings it's hard to actually discuss anything. She shifts meetings and calendar events all the time.

She is constantly unprepared for meetings - emails sit for months and documents and memos also linger - and she's not only always talking about how overwhelming her email is, but she lets people know *in the meetings* that she is *just at that moment* reading the email or document being discussed.

My boss and I have sent several items to her that didn't get any responses (unless and until we cornered her in the office when she's in the office) and on that Big Project I'm still technically waiting to hear whether it's moving forward, she's been a bigger obstacle to our making progress and doing things than both NYC OMB and the budget and migrant crises, which is saying something. She's one of the biggest reasons why we've had to keep adjusting our plans and the work we're trying to do and she keeps either not paying attention or not being clear with us so we're constantly struggling. It's to the point where our other agency partners are openly asking me "Do you even want to work on this? Are you actually prioritizing this? It's a little ridiculous that we have other offices and divisions asking us to participate and you all keep holding things up and not doing anything".

All this to say that today was our monthly coordinating meeting with two of our key other partners in the agency. We have a lot of projects or topics that we needed to discuss and make decisions on.

Things get kicked off with the bulk of one of the other partner teams not being available, so we were initially going to try to shift some things. Then we got someone and could move forward with the original agenda/list of topics.

Y'all...she was the one who put the agenda together. And she made it very clear that she had basically not read or ignored the email (which I flagged for her! Yesterday!) that the other partner team's lead had sent with all of the details. So she was asking for him to provide and go over stuff that is not only in the email, which I flagged, but which is also now at least a month old from when it was originally sent. And we didn't make a decision. She and I apparently are going to "discuss" this and "get some insight" from program teams in our office/division and then come back.

We then moved on to the next topic, and she was a little incoherent and mentioned the memo that I and my boss and another coworker put together which she has decided now needs to go to senior leadership and which she is editing. A memo that was sent to her *in July*, I want to emphasize. And, again, no decision.

The next topic was The Big Project. And the other team's lead directly asked "Have you guys done anything like we discussed?" and she floundered and I had to jump in and tell him what I'd told him separately, which is no, because we'd been told we were waiting for xyz from senior leadership and so nothing has moved forward except the draft stuff I sent to senior leadership a few weeks ago. And then my boss mentioned the changes we'd made and my boss completely, again, either hadn't paid attention to the emails or wasn't agreeing with us and hadn't let us know until then so she started trying to go back on things and make further changes and I almost lost my shit but fortunately I was muted on the call so no one heard me.

And now tomorrow my boss has scheduled a meeting with me, her, and the overall team director to make sure we're all on the same page. I told my boss that I'm hesitant at this point because of the issues we've had with the director and the other obstacles involved. I also flat out said "If she could read her email and be prepared in advance, it would help. Because this was embarrassing."

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handoverthekawaii · 10 months

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We Go Together | Homelander x You | Chapter 2

Taglist: @hom3landr

You spend the rest of Friday in a state of paranoia, unable to focus on your work and startled by every footfall you hear. Surely, you’re going to be summoned to your boss’s office at any moment, or maybe armed guards will materialize instead to escort you from the premises. There’s no way you’ll still have a job at Vought by the end of the day… is there?

But defying all odds, at 5:00 you are dismissed for the weekend alongside the rest of your team. You remain alert as you exit Vought Tower for the night, still half-expecting to be tackled to the ground by overzealous security staff.

You finally start to relax once you’re onboard a subway train chugging out of Manhattan. Now that you have a moment to think, you start to turn over the day’s incredible events in your mind. Could your offense have been deemed so egregious that Vought needs all weekend to strategize how they’ll deal with you?

Or did Homelander not tell anyone what he saw you trying to do? And if he didn’t, why the hell not?

You obsess over it all weekend long but the answers don’t come. By Monday morning, you’ve resigned yourself that this is a riddle you won’t be able to solve. Whatever his reasons might be, Homelander gave you a pass this time around. You’ll have to be more careful — more strategic — the next time you try to access that room.

Homelander would never admit it, but he thinks about his encounter with you all weekend, too. There are a mixture of reasons, really — like the fact that he let you go scot-free, and he can’t articulate why he did it.

The easy answer, the convenient answer, would be that seeing Vought employees behave badly doesn’t faze Homelander in the slightest. After all, how many times has his X-ray vision revealed baggies of cocaine in their desk drawers, purses, and pockets? How many times has he flown past the window of a corner office, only to witness a workplace tryst occurring within? And how many times has he seen Translucent doing… whatever Translucent does in the building’s restrooms… and just walked away?

But something about THIS encounter, with you, had been different. You weren’t popping pills in the stairwell or bending it over your boss’s desk for a 0.25% higher raise this year. Homelander had caught you red-handed trying to enter a restricted area, and he hadn’t done a damn thing about it. Simply put, his decision defied explanation.

Not being able to justify his actions scares Homelander (although he’d never admit that, either). It makes him feel out-of-control somehow, like he’s a loose cannon, no better than a dog chasing cars. Deep down, he knows he IS better — he’s the leader of The Seven, goddamn it, the jewel in Vought’s superhero crown. But if he can’t rely on himself to make smart decisions, then how are the people of America supposed to rely on him?

No, he can’t go there. He can’t think like that. Homelander refocuses his attention, from the nature of the encounter to the other person that was there — you. Y/N L/N, the feisty little temp from Hero Management who likes to keep her secrets close. The mere mortal who stood in the presence of divinity and would not bend the knee.

Homelander’s got a busy week ahead — there’s an executive leadership meeting on Monday, two television interviews on Tuesday, blah blah blah. Still, if time permits, he wouldn’t mind moseying down to the Hero Management Division to get an update on their stats this quarter. All the better if during his visit he runs into YOU again. [continued in AO3]

#ao3 writer #fanfic #the boys #homelander x reader #homelander x you #the homelander #homelander x y/n #homelander

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taizi · 2 years

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unaware i’m tearing you asunder

@officiallyasl 2022 day 8; sabo remembers

read on ao3

part two of three;

(previous) (next)

Sabo truly believes in the Revolutionary Army as a whole. He has respect for their work and trusts in their leadership. He’s seen firsthand how his own efforts have paid off in liberating the oppressed and dismantling tyrannical local governments. Every second he’s put into his life here has been more than worthwhile.

That said, sometimes Sabo would appreciate a fucking break.

He and Koala are back in Baltigo, fresh in from a month-long undercover op—just walked through the front door fresh—and the only immediate plans on Sabo’s mind involve debriefing, showering, and then sleeping for approximately thirty-two hours straight.

The barely-controlled mayhem he’s immediately confronted with inside headquarters throws a wrench into those plans with impeccable aim. Everyone is hurtling toward the situation room, and Sabo gives himself two seconds to daydream about slipping past whatever fresh hell this is and bolting to his quarters before he trades a bolstering glance with Koala and follows.

Dragon, sitting at his desk in the back of the room, makes absolutely no attempt to restore order. In fact, he only looks up to establish direct eye-contact with Sabo—clearly a reminder that, as Chief of Staff, this is his problem.

I owe him everything and have nothing to gain by flipping his desk over, Sabo reminds himself sternly.

“What a welcome committee,” he says, loud enough to carry over the room. The cheer in his voice is a hidden blade. Koala calls this his angler-fish tone and in his periphery he sees her twitch uneasily. “Glad to see how you conduct yourselves when I’m not around!”

It’s maybe slightly unfair. But he’s tired. And his staff is better-trained than this. If it’s an actual emergency, there’s protocols to follow, and this scrambling around is both time-wasting and makes them look stupid, which is slightly more unforgivable in his eyes. If it’s not an emergency, then they’re keeping him from sleeping in a bed for the first time in three days for nothing, and he’s fully prepared to take that personally.

A good two-thirds of the room has gone still and silent; the rest are the people who seem to be actually working, so he’ll take it.

“Terry,” he calls out, “fill me in, please.”

The intelligence officer doesn’t even look up from the snails he’s coaxing into position; a little Cameko and its partner Proko, neither of which are immediately familiar to Sabo at a glance.

“The Paramount War is over,” Terry says, succinctly explaining the frenetic energy that Sabo and Koala walked in on.

Sabo feels his spine straighten—in two days, there still hasn’t been any new information in the papers about the outcome of the war. The World Government has been tight-lipped and they’re clearly leaning on the press.

He and Koala hadn’t been in any position to access the broadcast of Fire Fist’s execution during their mission, but even if they had, apparently the live feed went dark at a certain point. The whole thing smacked of a cover-up.

“They stopped the broadcast but the transponder snail kept recording,” Terry goes on. “One of our moles was able to make a copy and it’s just arrived.”

“All of you are forgiven for acting insane,” Sabo declares, clapping his hands together. Koala snorts, and Hack rolls his eyes. Dragon just turns a page in the reports he’s reading, looking entirely unconcerned by the potential uncovering of a grand conspiracy, because Dragon is a soulless individual who hates fun things.

The Cameko finally settles, and the Proko’s eyes light up, and everyone’s attention flies to the video projected onto the wall. Sabo studies the scene—an incongruously sunny sky hanging above an execution scaffold, a young man on his knees with a curtain of dark hair hanging in his face, and Fleet Admiral Sengoku beside him, voice magnified by the transponder snail in his hand.

Typical of the World Government to make a production of this, Sabo thinks, disgusted. How dare they show this man’s death off like it’s a sporting event?

And he’s angry, he realizes. Angry as Sengoku goes on about Fire Fist’s true lineage, all while the pirate himself denies it. His desperate shout of “Whitebeard is the only father I have!” is drowned out by the implacable, damning truth that rings out for the world to hear:

“Your real father is Gold Roger.”

Immediately, the situation room is buzzing—this is news, big news, that Gol D. Roger had a son and he’s already made a name for himself on the Grand Line—but it’s all static to Sabo’s ears. White noise. He can’t hear anything. He’s having an out-of-body experience.

He knew that already. He knew Roger had a kid. How did he know that?

And why is he so furious he feels like he could come apart with it? That secret wasn’t Sengoku’s to tell.

In the recording, Fire Fist has yet to lift his head, kneeling there behind those crossed swords, but the defeated slump of his shoulders and the painful clench of his hands makes Sabo want to scream.

That’s not what he should look like. That’s not where he belongs.

Fire Fist Ace, Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. He’s smiling in his Wanted posters, a devilish smirk that gives the game away that he’s every bit as dangerous as his bounty suggests. The combination of that wicked expression, and his dark complexion, and the freckles scattered across the bridge of his nose always causes Sabo’s gut to clench unpleasantly. He doesn’t give the posters more than a passing glance when he sees them because they make him feel oddly seasick. Homesick. Something.

But now the picture’s burned into his mind. He can’t blink it away.

Suddenly, he can see that smile and those freckles on a much younger face. A tangle of dark hair, always a little too long, because he hated letting grown-ups near his head with scissors and he didn’t trust his brothers not to make him look stupid on purpose. Tiny hands clenched around a length of heavy metal piping, strong enough to do whatever damage he needed them to, still learning how to be gentle.

Ace. The name surfaces from the bottom of his heart, but it doesn’t belong to a stranger anymore. It’s not some random Whitebeard pirate, not some distant, unrelated prisoner about to meet his end at the hands of the corrupted World Government.

Ace, he thinks, and it comes to him in a sunburst. A supernova. My brother.

“—bo? Sabo?” Koala’s voice beside him makes him jump. He realizes she’s shaking his arm, that she’s probably been saying his name over and over. “You’re going to hyperventilate if you keep this up, Sabo. Breathe.”

He breathes. He’s in the back of the room and a few people are eyeing him in concern, but everyone else is still watching the projection in the front. He’s free to press the heel of his hand against his sternum and try to force steel into his heart.

It doesn’t work. For all of his training, for everything he’s seen and done up to this point and everything he’s survived, he can’t keep the panic from corroding his good sense like acid.

Oh god, he thinks helplessly, as the situation in the video rapidly deteriorates, the Whitebeard pirates arriving to stake their claim and the Marines refusing to give ground and his brother, his brother, caught in the middle of it all. Oh god, don’t die. Don’t die. Don’t let him die.

But it’s pointless. Sabo is watching this from the future. He’s standing here where he’s completely useless, where he can’t do anything that matters, miles and days away from the spot where his—where Ace—

“Ace!” His own voice, young and rough, right on the edge of laughter. He’s a child, standing on a lopsided wooden dock where a ramshackle-looking fishing boat is moored. He’s happy to see his friend break out of the dense woods and make his way down to the cove at a jog. “You finally showed up! Took you long enough.”

His brother blows out an annoyed huff, bare feet thudding across the wheezing, sun-bleached planks. He knocks his shoulder into Sabo’s as soon as he’s close enough. His affection masquerades as antagonism because that’s the best he knows how to do, but Sabo can tell the difference.

“Yeah, yeah. I told you to go ahead without me. It’s not like I don’t know how to swim.”

A smaller body collides with both of them, arms wrapping around them in a way that defies physics, but it isn’t alarming. It isn’t even weird. If anything, Sabo thinks it’s cute.

“No way! We had to wait for you!” another familiar voice says petulantly. “We have to go together, dummy!”

“Oh, you’re the last person who can call me a dummy, Lu!”

“Sabo, I’m not above dragging you to the infirmary,” Koala says, squeezing his wrist. “You’re freaking me out.”

“I’m fine,” he says, or he thinks he says that. He says something, probably. He doesn’t know.

His entire life is in upheaval. Memories he’s suppressed for the last ten years are inching their way back, making room for themselves, painting everything else he knows in a new light.

Some of it trickles back slowly, reluctantly, like water picking its way around a bend—a locked door, barred windows, uncomfortable family photos. Running through the streets while the world burned down outside the kingdom walls, searching desperately for someone, anyone, a single person who might care.

The rest comes roaring through like a flood. A treehouse at the top of the mountain, where they could see for miles. Racing through the city with his pockets full of stolen gold, laughing so hard he couldn’t catch his breath, certain he’s won their bet of who could score the biggest. That stormy night spent clustered in the hollow of a giant tree because they didn’t make it home before the sky cracked open. His little brother had fallen asleep as soon as they stopped moving around, as he was wont to do, his head nestled comfortably on Sabo’s shoulder. Sabo stayed awake, and watched Ace spend the better part of an hour coaxing a fire to life in a pile of scavenged sticks and damp leaves, just to keep them warm.

There’s another sudden arrival on the screen. A boy falls from the sky and an entire, presumably stolen, warship falls with him. It’s a ridiculous, explosive entrance to the stage, and it puts everyone on the back foot. He’s tiny next to the titanic Whitebeard—tiny next to everyone on the Marineford—but appearances are deceiving.

This is Straw Hat Luffy, the rookie making waves across the sea, the pirate who inexplicably broke into and then out of Impel Down, for reasons known only to himself.

No. No, the reason he did that is obvious. It’s exactly the kind of thing he would do. He’s just the same now as he’s always been, inexhaustible, inexorable, brought up by the do-or-die laws of the jungle and two big brothers who never taught him to know when to quit.

Luffy, who feels too strongly and loves too hard and dreams too big. Luffy, who walked right into Hell for his brother because it wouldn’t occur to him to do any less. Luffy, little Luffy, always running after them. The other half of Sabo's heart slotting neatly into place.

Luffy throws up his arms and calls Ace’s name, as if he’s exhilarated to have made it in time. He is the only one happy about this development.

For the first time since he was brought out onto the scaffold, Ace surges forward against his chains. His expression is wretched before it screws up into a snarl.

“This has nothing to do with you,” he bellows, loud enough to be heard across the plaza, over the heads of hundreds of soldiers. “I don’t want your help! Get the hell out of here!”

He sounds angry, properly furious, and scared out of his mind. Sabo feels a moment of hysterical camaraderie. The mind-numbing dread Sabo felt at seeing Ace on the execution scaffold has nothing on the absolute terror of watching their baby brother show up there.

Luffy claims Ace for the entire world to hear, and Sengoku reveals his parentage, too—he’s the son of the worst criminal in the world, Sabo’s own boss. If he weren’t having a dozen panic attacks all at once he would have more of a reaction to that, probably. He’s definitely going to put a pin in it for later.

It feels like he died and came back to life and now he’s dying again. It feels like he’s gone entirely insane. His brothers are in danger and he’s standing back and watching like it’s a theater performance. He hates this. He hates this. He can’t tear his eyes away.

When the recording comes to an end, the last thing Sabo sees is Akainu burning a chunk out of Luffy’s chest. Ace’s desperate scream is still ringing in his ears.

The room around him is full of some of the brightest minds in the world, and they’re already deep in discussion. They’re mulling over what they’ve seen, what they’ve learned about Fire First and Straw Hat, what this means for the next generation, what the World Government is going to do next.

None of them are asking the important question, so Sabo takes it upon himself to direct them. He is their Chief of Staff, after all.

“Where are they?” he demands. “Find them. Now.”

#aslbrothersweek2022 #one piece #op #asl bros #opfic #revolutionary sabo #portgas d ace #monkey d luffy #my writing #thunder in our hearts

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moonspirit · 11 months

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Embarrassing TFLM Brainrot here

So this is a brainrot post meant mainly for myself - I spent too much time on this story and I want to get my thoughts on it out of my system so I can move on to other ideas. Also so I can come back to this post later. Contains stuff that inspired certain moments/scenes and intentions behind other details.

Story is here btw.

Mentions and links here are because your post/fanfic/artwork inspired some scene or dialogue etc xD You absolutely don't have to read this, it's VERY long and messy lmao.

1 - Rope Pulling

This scene served three purposes:

to drive home the point that there is no longer any room for racial bias and hate, which is especially problematic given that even though all six Alliance members (except Mikasa, since she's no longer there) stopped the Rumbling together, only three (Armin, Jean & Connie) are from Paradis and therefore, face more prejudice on Fort Salta than the Warriors - both from the Marleyan inhabitants and also the Eldian refugees of Liberio.

to show that the others will have Armin's back when he makes decisions and hesitates to put forth his ideas because of his low self-esteem. Imo Armin's decision to stay on ground with the people is very much in consonance with his style of leadership, which is more gentle and less commandeering. It is implied that Muller's charged speech is written by Armin (boy is eloquent af, okay, and manipulative, hence using the children to spark motivation) but the reason he gets Muller to deliver it is not only because he lacks Erwin's charisma, but also, had he himself delivered it, the ppl on Fort Salta would be like "Oh, so now a devil from Paradis commands us? heck no". They would've listened to him ofc, but he wouldn't have achieved what he wanted to achieve with standing along with everyone else. It's a plea for "See us as humans too. Just like yourselves."

A plot point to get a celebratory mood going on the Fort.

2 - Breakfast

Really nothing much to say here except to lay down the foundation for the setting of the fictional country of Kald. Felipe (OC) was just an accessory to explain this. I'll flesh it out in the sequels, but my intention to feature Kald as an extremely friendly and accepting country, along with the bountiful nature it possesses is a symbolism I've always wanted to write about - that after decades of hate and bloodshed, here is a country that simply wants to celebrate the miracle of life, the miracle of living. Kald is also a projection of everything Armin has dreamed of. It's also an excuse to get our six tortured characters to finally live normal lives, doing ordinary, mundane things haha xD Also I suck at politics, so giving them a peaceful country to go to is convenient for me lmao.

Also since Muller dissolved the Marleyan military, there is no longer any authority (with the exception of Armin who still carries a title) and so the young boys finding the crates of rum was to show that there is unrestricted and free access to basically everywhere and everything. Just a silly lil detail lol.

3 - Children

This scene was just designed for plain humour - another opportunity to get Armin teased and flustered - but it became more than that. The children are a symbolism of their own childhoods which they were very quickly robbed of. Hence, the kids don't have names (it was annoying to write 'boy' so many times but welp) and the blond kid is basically Armin as a child himself. Armin lost his parents to curiosity, his grandfather to the titans and was bullied severely. He was shielded over and over again by his fiercely loyal friends (EM) - and so when the kids refuse to leave the injured blond boy alone, that too is a parallel (tho this is very obvious in the writing itself).

@ master-of-insects made a post here where they pointed out how manga Armin has brown/hazel eyes and so I thought - amazing! Let's give the blond kid brown eyes, so then he's different, but also very much a young Armin.

The children are way too innocent, have not yet realized they are now orphans and so that one line where one of them says "like my mother gives my father a big kiss" is funny, but also really sad.

It also allowed for these children to be treated exactly like children and with plenty of kindness (Armin offering to race them down is an extension of the kindness he has always shown everyone) so that despite having lost their parents, they are still going to have some good memories in a free-er world outside Liberio, teaching them that everybody in the world is equal and worthy of love.

Acts as a plot point to be invited to the dance later.

This scene was also meant to let our four big boys do silly things like race each other down a hill and bet on potatoes - something they probably would have done as kids, but never could.

Gave me an excuse to make Armin a dad for a brief period of time lmao.

The Annie references here were to show that Annie's always thinking of him and her quiet displays of tenderness to even children, by way of tending to one when he's hurt - and Armin finding out indirectly and accidentally that she sees him as more than anything she actually says in words, making him fall in love with her even more. He already knows that she's kind and caring and so pushes the blond kid to thank her later, knowing it'll give her great relief.

4 - Sunset

Ahhhhhh now this scene. JeanConArmin has a very special place in my heart. With Mikasa gone, they are the only ones left from Paradis - and they cannot go back to Paradis for now. These three share so much right from their (non-existent) childhood - the same country, the same culture, the same people, the same folklore(?), the same kid's games(?) etc. Throughout the manga there have been so many instances where the three of them have interacted and relied on each other beautifully so I wanted to expand on them post-rumbling. In 139, when they go back to Paradis, it really is only the three of them who are truly "going home".

The equipment cleaning idea came from Season 1, when Armin recalls repairing/fixing gears together with Marco. I've always thought it was something they probably did very often - performing maintenance and so it seemed fitting that they would perform their very last maintenance after the Rumbling. After all, the 3DMG, the blades, the wires, the thunder spears were all designed to combat titans, which no longer exist. It is the end of an era.

The little moment where Armin remembers Hange while looking at the clouds was inspired by this fanart by @ annawayne It was a last minute addition really, but I had to get Hange in somehow and in this artwork, Hange is looking empathetically at Armin, which gave me the inspiration for that whole moment.

JeanKasa comes to an end so that I can neatly add references to JeanPiku in future sequels (tho I prolly won't ever write proper JeanPiku cuz Pieck is too smart for me and I will suck at it.)

The whole Fondue thing is homage to Sasha. I've never eaten Fondue myself so I'm now kinda scared cuz I'm prolly going to butcher this whole plot point when I get around to it in sequels.

5 - Bonfire

oh welp, okay, so after a LONG time we get to Annie here and we see what she's struggling with. A whole avalanche of messy emotions and thoughts, garnished with a generous sprinkle of inner-conflict and extreme guilt. I wondered often while writing if this made Annie very OOC but then thought, oh why not, it's realistic because all she ever wanted to do was go back to her dad before she died from Ymir's curse. Death was always a certainty and now it's not and she's reeling from the possibilities that gives her and refuses to believe she's worthy of any of it. Annie's always been kind, she just never got to live a life where she could afford to show much kindness. She's also severely touch-starved and dying for more physical contact but Armin's too busy. I mean, if I were Annie, I would've like, exploded in anger on the spot lmao.

For Annie, Armin has become so important that even the smallest of disappointments sets her off - like not knowing about the time he got drunk, or his dismay at being left out of the festivities. Also, she's been pessimistic for as long as she's lived, so when the four kids (because they were shown some love and played with, they now return the kindness (good karma!) by getting the dancers to invite our characters to the celebrations) come to call them, it's a shock - she never that was ever a possibility. So a new door has opened for her in this instance and she sees how Armin's got what he wanted, exactly how he wanted. This is the point where she begins to understand how Armin works, what drives him to be how he's always been and the rewards of his humane/gentle approach.

6 - Dancing

We see this also from Annie's POV because she's new to all this, and it also has to feel new to all of us. Someone like Annie who was always driven to finish what she had to do, as fast as possible, so that she could return home and die - cannot comprehend the celebrations. It feels alien to her. So everything that happens in this scene is messy, frightening, and confusing. And yet she is GOOD at it lmao, ofc Annie's good at dancing, she's a graceful fighter, why wouldn't she be good at it? Very slowly she begins to let her guard down and enjoy it but enjoyment doesn't come easily when you're also feeling extremely guilty of enjoying it (a vicious cycle). So the blond kid dances with her, tells her a thank you, and effectively, puts a small band-aid on her aching heart. She then dances with Armin and it is at this moment that the dance, which was confusing, scary and messy until now, becomes magical, beautiful, a lovely thing to behold.

the whole lanterns thing was inspired by this YouTube comment I took screenshot of in a separate post here

So I really really agree with what this person says, Armin's always seen the beauty in things. Freedom to Armin is being able to see beauty, being able to enjoy the simple moments of life, so when for him, embers look like floating lanterns, Annie is SHOOK lmao. And so she begins to wonder if someday she too can see the world like him. It serves to open another door for her - where living, with Armin, could be a beautiful experience, not something to fear. Which is why, when she in turn tells Pieck that they are not embers, but lanterns, it is her willingness to accept the wondrous prospects of a long, long life.

many of the lines Pieck says during this dancing scene, eg, "that's all I am now" referring to being human, and "soak in the bliss, there's nothing quite like it" referring to being loved by someone else, and "we are alive, might as well enjoy living" are realizations Annie makes throughout this scene, just that we need Pieck to be the one to say it out loud. Also, Pieck smart okay. Best girl.

7 - The Kiss

inspired by this fanart by @NaityNain on twitter.

everyone is always consoling Armin but now it's his turn to give someone solid courage and that someone happens to be our ice-cold kitten Annie. I don't really have many thoughts about this scene tbh.

ah but yes, Idk man, it was supposed to be sweet but became too heated with tongue and all and welp.

I think most AruAni shippers agree that Annie isn't very vocal with words of affection and love, at least, at the beginning, so it just made sense that Armin would be able to see the emotions swimming in her eyes. And he remembers how he wasn't able to get a single answer from her for four years (S4) when inside the crystal and now she's right there, eyes open, and he just has all the answers he needs. So she doesn't really need to say it out loud, he gets it, but he tells it in proper words back to her because she needs to hear it, and also Armin won't ever hesitate to tell her what he feels.

8 - Conversations, etc

building hope in this scene. The Neptune thing is a reference to the prequel in this series and also, a symbolism for hope. It gives Annie a new dream to hold onto, and Armin a new book to look forward to reading since he no longer has his old book with him.

Annie also finds out things like his birthday because she wants to know everything there is to know about Armin and her heart is starting to open up to the wonders of living and loving.

also building sexual tension hahaha

yeah sorry for the really bad jokes here, couldn't help it lmao

when that whole drinking fiasco takes place with Annie, well ofc the reason it happens in the first place is bec she's mortified that everyone knows the stuff she told that blond boi - dumb of him to babble huh? But I didn't want her to resort to violence like kicking Reiner or punching Jean because ever since that dance with Armin where she "playfully" kicked him and then felt guilty about it, imo she's thinking - "violence has been always a means to an end, but these five people are my close friends now, and they do not deserve to be treated with violence anymore." And so she does something silly and stupid instead and stalks off. Armin figures out why she did it and here we see his low self-esteem again, this is a problem that will take a very long time to get over and when drunk Annie reveals her feelings and boosts his self confidence, he's beyond touched.

gave me a chance to write more tooth-rot and contract diabetes.

9 - Mr.Leonhardt

honestly Mr.Leonhardt wasn't going to play any part in this story. My entire portrayal of Mr.Leonhardt in this fic is heavily inspired by @ distortedclouds 's excellent takes over here on Annie's relationship with her father and vice versa, and her character analysis of Mr.Leonhardt here is just fantastic. I agree with all of this. However, because Mr.Leonhardt isn't going to really feature in the story anymore, this scene was really just to contrast the two men in Annie's life - one who treated her with cruelty since day1 and one who treats her with nothing but love.

also a chance to show how much Armin thinks of her and everything he wants to show her and do with her (i.e that embarrassing ice cream part haha xD)

also enables Armin to come back to his tent and go through several memories in his head, of the current day's events and of things from his past, finally ending with thoughts and memories of Annie. That's why we have that little portion that goes "... Green eyes. Annie's eyes." Because thinking of Eren gives him pain, thinking of Annie gives him happiness.

10 - Morning

I really, really enjoyed writing that portion where Annie wakes up to a sweet and affectionate Armin, it gave me all the butterflies myself lmao. Why doesn't Armin exist irl ffs.

the scene that was especially cinematic in my head was the one where the six of them are the last to board the train. With the bundles of gear swinging over their shoulders, and with Armin being the only one wearing the cape with the Wings of Freedom - and Annie watching his back - was inspired by a fanart (for which I can't find an artist, so I can't link it).

A small significance of that moment where Armin's blades reflect the morning light and throw an iridescent halo (let's just fuck the physics here ok?) over the train and speckle some children's faces with shards of rainbow light - this had an intention behind it. Armin never used his swords much to kill. He never took (m)any lives with it, Titan or human. So when his blades instead reflect rainbow light, coating some young children's faces with several beautiful colours - that was to show that Armin's blades were never meant for death, they were meant for something beautiful, meant for life.

11 - Final Scene

okay so Pieck and Annie, I really think there's so much potential here because Pieck is the perfect balance of easy-going to Annie's tightly controlled emotions. There are things Annie can talk with Armin about, but not everything perhaps (or atleast, not at once) and with the whole muddle of how to get by with these feelings of love, Pieck is sort of like her sister figure. Especially since Hitch isn't there atm. For Pieck too, Annie can be someone she can talk to about her relationship with Porco. Now, honestly I ship PokkoPiku because they seemed to have a great vibe going on, ofc before Porco, well, died like that, and because Pieck has this carefree personality on the outside that could result in her being very quiet and guarded inside about deeply held emotions - Annie can be her pillar of support to grieve and move on from that. Or so I hope to write such a thing.

that letter, yeahhh…. Isn't Armin so good with words? T_T Anyway, some little details I managed to put in here is that throughout the story, Armin hasn't once (directly) mentioned Eren's name until in the letter. Also during that portion where he honours all the people - it goes in order of dead to alive with Annie being the last, because she's an integral part of his entire future, of his life, of him. The letter is also basically Armin making a promise to himself, giving Annie something to look forward to and also, by asking her to keep the letter for him, showing her she's that precious to him.

OH FUCK I FORGOT FALCO AND GABI IN THE LETTER???!!!!!

Last few words at the ending "By the light of a new Sun" were taken directly from the ending of Interstellar hahahhahaa xD (I love that movie)

This is a MESS, but now I'm done. Boi, I feel free.

#own fic brainrot #aruani fic tho #its too long #and too messy #FREEDOM FROM BRAINROT WOOHHOOOO #sorry for putting this on your dash #and sorry for rambling #ig this is very embarrassing lmao

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touchstoneaf · 8 months

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So continuing the theme that the Metatron is a piece of garbage who's scared to death of these two... cuz obviously he is, after the miracle. The timing is just too obvious; he was upset the minute he realized they had enough power to threaten him. But that makes me think that he has a tentative position, or one that doesn't feel very strong to him. Like a de facto leader. That's the only reason he might want to break them up and make sure that Crowley gets screwed over in the process (which, I think it's kind of obvious that he has it in for it Crowley, who was obvs pretty high up at least in the pre-Fall ranking. Which makes him even more threatening; someone Metatron has to kneecap before he can join with Aziraphale in screwing him up).

But when you put all that into a wider context... I'm trying to think if we heard anything from God herself after Job (aside from the season one narration), or if that's the last time we've actually heard Her speak to anybody directly. Which makes me kind of wonder if she was so busy playing with her project of setting up the Apocowasnt to happen the way She wanted to that She was hands off with everything else, and the next step got a little out of control? Or She's playing with all of this from an extreme distance, which leaves a vacuum of power in between her and the leadership, on both sides, because it's clear that God was supposed to have been more hands-on in the early days, but then kind of backed off and started working through proxies, et cetera (like, eventually Jesus).

Except that she seems like She had Her hand in the pie by having Zira and Crowley there at all, and all of that stuff, that it all seems part of the actual PLAN... but it really makes one wonder... Is Metatron in charge for a reason, & if so, why? Is it a default position while God is busy elsewhere, and now he's had a taste of power, and doesn't want to let it go now that he realizes he wasn't really as in control of the full picture as he thought he was? Is he using his figurehead position / as a mouthpiece to do things that are way beyond his job description and powers?

If so, maybe now God is using Zira and Crowley, sculpted by Her very specifically over the millennia for this one job... to wit, ousting Metatron and getting things back into balance in Heaven and Hell and on Earth. That the Apocowasnt was only the first step, and probably even a little bit of a sideline. It would be just like Her in this version to want to use the power of love to effect real change after something got a little bit out of hand while she was looking the other way, or something to that effect.

In which case, Metatron's instincts are right on the money. Because this would mean that Aziraphale and Crowley have been made and put together specifically to bring him down, because he's not doing what She wants. And i bet also She doesn't actually want the Second Coming to occur the way they want it to. The way Metatron (who obviously is still pissed off about the Fall & at Crowley and others for it, and who is interpreting everything as a way to change things back to the unbalanced, one-sided idea of "the right way to do things" that it was like before the Fall)... the way Metatron thinks they should have been. Because he doesn't realize the Fall is part of God's plan to make all this happen; both to give humans two different influences, so that we have the ability to essentially make choices and mature as a species and become better than we are (the trite, obvious gospel reason for having Hell & evil at all... essentially, the party line), and because she needs Zira and Crowley to be ready to do what She needs them to do to bring him down when it eventually needs to happen.

I think Metatron's job was actually to make Heaven (and by action of doing so, Hell) as polarized as they are so that humans had a much faster maturation rate whilst strung between two poles. To literally grow into the gray area exemplified by our 2 babies, who are the leading edge of this evolution. Literally being exactly what angels are supposed to be... which are guides for humans as we are learning how to navigate free will... Which was, let's face it, the project that they two have been assigned to since the Garden. They are literally growing with us, just a little bit ahead of us, so they can guide us with their two opposite perspectives, which are perspectives that understand both sides (unlike most of their compatriots), and can see different shadings of meaning in it, and can continue to shepherd humans through our growing pains because they know EXACTLY what they feel like)... Ultimately so we can stop the childish black & white thinking that we started out with. But first, we have to realize the childish black & white thinking is too simple and wrong, and to mature enough to recognize that there are other options....

Which means they are a double threat against Metatron, because once that miracle happened, he realized he might be really losing ground in a way he was trying to ignore, and now he's very scared to lose everything, is doing everything to avoid that. He's the powerful person who lied his way to the top and doesn't want to lose their position and their high paycheck and all of their advantages now that people have started unionizing. This atop quite a few other related concerns that are driving him batty.

Now that for instance, we have evidence that there's erosion going on with more than just our 2 kids (who btw have somehow inexplicably squeaked by with this relationship of theirs and with questioning everything for millennia, and how the heck have they never been put out of commission and kept separate before now? And does that mean that God actually doesn't really approve of what he's doing? This is the stuff that would keep Metatron up at night, as it were). The erosion is now also in the highest levels of Heaven and Hell, which shows that his position is really shaky right now.

I think he was already worried when he lost Gabriel to said erosion/questioning of the party line. He had 6000 years to urgently tell himself that he was doing a great job, his position is secure, everything was going fine... That it was just the lower level angels who are questioning things, people like Zira and probably Muriel, who could either be demoted and sent to Earth to get all caught up in earthly details and minutiae, like Zira, or who could easily be shuffled off to the back room somewhere or down to the copy room or whatever. And now this miracle is like the last straw for him, and he's panicking.

To go with the metaphor of the corporate culture we've seen in Heaven, he's an oligarch who has realized that people are starting to see past the fictions and mythologies we've been taught that keep us separate, and we're starting to realize we have more in common and starting to band together Questioning angels, demons who are smart enough to realize that focusing only on war is a distraction, just like it is for Heaven. That there's other things to think about again like there used to be (also I think the dumb ones are actually just the ones who joined in cause it sounded cool, but there are thinkers, obviously, or Bzzz wouldn't have ended up with Gabriel), and of course also humans if they join in, which is even more terrifying, because God loves us and wants us to succeed.

Our babies aren't just scary because they can make bigger miracles than anybody else, and could thus whomp up the raw power to actually do something to him, but their very existence calls into question his methods, everything he thought was actually going down, and his place in the Plan (which, by the way, I think he clearly mistook, and he's not nearly as important a player as he seems to think he is). Is he a false prophet, even?Because now he has to fear that maybe they were specifically created to bring him down and stop him from doing things in a way that God really didn't want him to in the first place... or why else should a relationship that's unsanctioned and all of that somehow have the power to take him down, from a standpoint overall oomph?

He is absolutely terrified of them on an existential level; re his sense of what his personal identity is and what he means to the universe and the Plan... and as well, they threaten his position & power, which by now he obviously covets.

I can't think that this is all just something that's happening while God is looking the other way, creating life over in another galaxy or something. She's had Her hand in all of this from the start, so it has to be part of the overall arc... A chess player who's using a couple of pawns to topple a king.

This is going to be exciting! And I will not be shaken from the certitude that these two are the key to it all.

#good omens meta #good omens spoilers #metatrash #aziraphale x crowley #being the keys to everything

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kickthecan-revolution · 2 years

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I’ve had to take a couple of meetings the last two days but it was worth it, I needed to get the feedback on the model I’ve put together to validate the feasibility analysis my team and I did on what is needed for a successful implementation. Everyone loves it and my instinct to not launch it too early without feedback from our Regional Directors was correct - they are running multi-million dollar businesses and need to have a say where their payroll goes. I met with our EMEIA Director this morning with my boss on the line as well - my boss’s boss is in London and offered to take her through the model but the Director said “if OK, I’d rather Diane take me through it, she has a level of detail that’s important.” which was hilarious and awesome. We stayed on for an hour, talking about our stores, our leaders, what they are all experiencing right now - she teared up, it’s so hard and my model is going to help if we create the right change management around it. My heart was so full after our conversation, she said “after 14 years, you’ve finally done it. congratulations.” And not a backhanded compliment, she knows how difficult it’s been and all of the obstacles we’ve faced.

It’s so huge. We’ve done some work that is going to help so much. This larger Retail University idea needs the payroll plumbing first and this will do it. One of my team broke down in tears last week, she feels so disrespected by our current senior Leadership and so lost in her role - what she didn’t know is behind the scenes, my long-time best friend, sister cat colleague R and I- the person who I’ve led the training team with forever - figured out a way of positioning my team with the Big Boss of the new vision of this university so we can do that work instead of the insanity we’re in now. I got on the phone with him and subtly showed him how my team can help - this morning, she sent me a screenshot and with the note “we are currently discussing how to get your team engaged on this”. So it’s happening, but my doesn’t know it yet because I won’t share it until it’s secured. One of my skills is political savvy - my borderline tendencies create belief that every moment needs to be survived, not lived - so interactions with others always has a “succeed or die” component to it which makes me particularly adept at being liked, ensuring others are heard, that I match their energy and understand their needs. That’s a need in Corporate America despite its darker and more broken intent. And, I am a Socialist by nature - I authentically care about everyone’s success and believe that a good solution means success for everyone’s individual projects and have innate ability to synthesize them into one big solution, but talk about that solution so everyone’s priority is seen and heard in it. So they are willing to work with me. Caring for people and telling the truth are more than just sentiment - they are the agents of change and for people who ultimately value good things, work (eventually).

###

I called the interior designer who helped me with my place to start phase 2, furniture is expensive and I don’t want to fuck it up. I don’t need anything fancy but I need an expert to help me invest the money I am (now) willing to spend; at first I wasn’t because of my loathing to contribute to the landfill but after falling asleep on my sofa and waking up to a bad back, I want a new couch. And I want a cool kitchen table and the storage unit to not smell like cat litter. And I think I want to figure out how to put a hot tub on the terrace. So she’ll help me figure all of that out.

####

I treated myself to some pancakes this morning but now I’m going to focus on my health. I’m going to lose some weight and be a better advocate for my body. The way I eat now is grounded in emotional soothing - I can have a different relationship to food now. My own.

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space-city-traffic · 1 year

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Byron: 18, 26, 58, Bellamy: 34, 35, Silas: 17, 29, 52 - no need to answer them all if that's too many of course but I went through your character tags and I am so interested in all three of these

omg omg omg of COURSE I am gonna answer all of these!!! i will put em under a cut tho in case not everybody wants to read all that lol

18: do they see themself as a leader or a follower? honestly, I think Byron wants neither. he’s grumpy and doesn’t really like hierarchies or working with people. that being said, though, he does end up taking on leadership roles at times. he runs his tavern like a tight ship, and he tries to provide a safe haven for anyone who needs it. so there are definitely times where he ends up taking charge as the manager and defender of that little sanctuary.

26: who do they miss? Byron misses his little brother. he failed to save that boy a long time ago, but he still wonders what kind of man he would have grown into.

58: what do they think their role in the party is? what is their role in actuality? in his opinion, Byron is the grumpy voice of reason. he can often be found saying things like “be safe!!!” and “don’t do warlock pacts, kids!!!” and “NO, do NOT vomit acid on my floor to try to summon an old god!!!” and while this is totally true, Byron is also just as unhinged as the rest of the party. this man has never followed his own advice ever. someone stop him.

34. which party member do they go to in a crisis? Bellamy would absolutely go to Lethe, who’s our resident blood hunter. both of them have immense expectations from their families on their shoulders, and only Lethe really knows how bad Bellamy’s situation is. they’re very similar, which means they’re each other’s biggest confidants. and they yell at each other to not be so reckless, because they are both self sacrificing idiots at times. (see: blood hunter.)

35. which party member do they worry for? Bellamy worries about EVERYONE oh my god. I would honestly say he worries most about Cadoras, who’s a disowned teenage wizard whose powerful parents are actively trying to kill him, (and is also the love of Bellamy’s life). but he’s the party’s favorite npc, not technically part of the party, so idk if he counts. Bellamy definitely worries a TON about Lethe, too, (see above). currently, though, i think Relban takes the cake? he is a tiny halfling who did fantasy shrooms and astral projected so hard he came face to face with a kraken that is apparently trying to eat his mind right now??? unclear??? but yeah Relban is currently staying in Bellamy’s room so someone can keep an eye on this poor boy.

17. what do they dream about, when their dreams are their own? currently, Silas doesn’t dream! he bought a magic badger plush that keeps away bad dreams! but normally he just has nightmares about the eldritch horrors he’s seen, as his mind tries to hold itself together with the weight of that unholy experience. fun!!

29. who would they save? who would they be saved by? Silas would save everyone he possibly could. no one would save him. (actually nowadays Thespa might actually come save him—which is a problem bc she’s the one he’s been ordered to spy on and possibly kill—he’s having a crisis about that—it’s fine—)

52. from whom do they seek validation? ohhh boy Silas LIVES for his handler’s validation, it is painful to watch. he knows his handler wouldn’t come save him, because the mission is all that matters, and he has to be okay with that. he has this utterly obsessive devotion to his organization, and his handler represents everything that stands for boiled down into a single person. Silas doesn’t even know his name. but he would die for that man without hesitation. and he doesn’t ask for anything in return. ✨fucked up child soldier paladins, man✨

tysm for these asks, I love talking about my blorbos from my ttrpgs!!!!!!!!!!!

26. who do they miss? Byron misses his little brother. he failed to save that little boy a long time ago, and he still sometimes wonders what kind of man he would’ve turned out to be. he misses his spouse Mer, too, because Mer travels a lot and isn’t always home. he misses the cleric. that almost-romance didn’t end well. yeahhhhh he misses a lot of folks.

#thanks for the ask!!#dnd shenanigans

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tehuti88-art · 3 months

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1/19/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Gunnery Sergeant Evans (first name never given). He appears early in the story and uses some unusual means to help the new battalion get off the ground. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se.

TUMBLR EDIT: I believe I shared a bit about Evans in Sgt. Irene Beaudry's entry. I don't know a lot about his background as he's only meant to appear in the first part of Genesis, chronologically the first part of the main story (though for some unexplained reason, it's presented second). Corporal Drake's role in the story has grown a bit more nuanced--he deals with various instances of passive (well...mostly) antisemitism (his very entry to the story is when the military truck Sergeant Camo is riding in forces his motorcycle off the road as a "joke")--so I imagine Evans playing more of a role in this fashion, as he secretly develops an attraction to Drake. He likely attempts to intervene yet is prevented from doing much by Drake himself, who insists that he just back off and let things be: "Speak up, and it only makes things worse," he snaps.

Evans, at a loss, decides to focus instead on helping get Camo's idea for the First Battalion off the ground. Almost nobody in a position to do anything is interested in doing so, not even when Drake presents circumstantial evidence of what the Nazi Party is actually up to, and it's a lot worse than they'd thought. The prevailing attitude is "Well, it's not our problem." Camo and Drake are near-opposites in their worldviews--Camo is the idealist hoping for the best, Drake is the realist preparing for the worst--so in an odd way they complement each other, and Evans realizes that the two of them working together is the best way to get things going. He attempts to act as a mediator, as the two do not get along well at first (Drake mistakenly believes Camo was involved in the incident with the military truck, when in fact he didn't fully understand what was happening at the time, and once he did find out he lambasted the driver for endangering everyone's lives); he also tries finding ways to convince higher-ups to greenlight the Trench Rats project.

I don't know if he or Camo is the one behind it, but a skilled surgeon, who later receives the codename Burgundy (I have yet to determine how the characters are referred to before they're recruited, so MAYBE they deal with these names before the battalion is even formed?--unsure), agrees to join the battalion only under the condition that he not be placed in a senior leadership position--a rather awkward condition, given that he's a second lieutenant, whereas Camo and Drake are a sergeant and corporal. (This was my attempt to retcon an explanation why a lieutenant would defer to people of lower ranks.) Evans may have a hand in convincing the famously inhospitable Burgundy to lend his services as part of a team.

He also approaches Sgt. Irene Beaudry to ask for her aid interceding with authorities; her position in all this isn't clear to me, but she's in a sort of assistant position, and can be very persuasive. She agrees to put forward Evans's case in the best light possible...if he'll come back to her place for the night. Evans finally hesitates and wonders if this trouble is worth it: He's in the closet, and isn't attracted to Beaudry at all. He also wonders if she plans to blackmail him if he refuses. So his reasons for going along likely aren't 100% altruistic, though his main motivation is helping out Drake, and he steels himself for the possibility of losing his job no matter what he does. He agrees to pass one night with Beaudry. Beaudry afterward holds up her end of the bargain and presents to her superiors Evans's argument for forming the battalion to send to Germany not only to rescue the captured American soldiers, but to spy on the Nazis; she also doesn't blackmail him. She may have a skeezy approach to sex, but is otherwise known to keep her word. Evans is squicked out by the entire experience but decides one especially uncomfortable night is worth helping Camo and Drake realize their goal.

Evans realizes he and Drake stand no chance being together. Throughout most of his part in the story, in fact, he's pretty sure Drake doesn't even like him. He accepts this, even though as time goes on Drake's icy demeanor thaws somewhat and there are subtle hints that Evans's feelings are cautiously reciprocated. The Trench Rats are formed and they get their order to ship out before anything can come of it. Before Drake leaves, however, Evans does summon up the nerve to abruptly kiss him; Drake is too surprised to do anything, though when Evans pulls away, they're both flustered, and not unpleasantly so. "Good luck," Evans blurts out, and "Thank you," Drake manages to say, and they part ways for the last time.

Obviously, Evans and Drake do not end up as a couple; Drake gets involved with French partisan Papillon while in Germany, and reunites with him following his captivity by the Nazis. He's badly traumatized by his experiences, but Papillon promises to stand by him no matter what and help however he can. Following the war, he invites Drake to return to France with him, and Drake accepts. In the United States, Evans is kept informed of what becomes of all the Trench Rats, including Drake, so he has no cause to wonder what happened to him; I imagine he feels rather wistful about what could have been, but wasn't. Just as before, however, he accepts this.

I haven't really explored Evans's post-war life, though I have reason to think he doesn't end up alone. A scenario started forming in my head of him briefly encountering another military person--possibly Navy--who offers him a friendly smile that makes him wonder; when they have reason to run into each other again, the other man's banter leads him to suspect he's interested in him. The only other time this happened was with Drake, and that never got the chance to go far, so Evans is really not good at figuring out how this works. When the sailor finally invites Evans to join him for a drink at a particular bar, that's about as clear a message as he can get, and he tentatively agrees. Upon arriving at the bar he notices there are no women there, only men, and that at last makes the situation crystal clear. He pushes down his nervousness and the two of them share drinks and have a long, pleasant talk. On the way out, the sailor kisses him, and it's nice, though Evans isn't really ready to do anything else just yet. He flushes and averts his eyes afterward, stumbling over an excuse to head home alone; the sailor smiles again and gives a soft laugh and says it's fine: "No hurry. We can go however slow you want."

Evans lets out his breath; it's amazing how just a few words can settle nerves. Still, "I think I'd like drinks again, sometime," he says, then manages to add, "And maybe we see where it goes from there." He briefly worries that he's doing it wrong, yet the other man merely smiles wider, and nods, and Evans feels pleasantly flustered just like all those years ago, after a different kiss.

[Evans 2024 [‎Friday, ‎January ‎19, ‎2024, ‏‎12:00:15 AM]]

#artists on tumblr #ibisPaint x #SketchDaily #original characters

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ringtrappedinamber · 5 months

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Vignette 7 - Yeah I could pretty much tell

Leiden Side

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[][][][][][][][][][] 15% Remaining..

Leiden sat in the club room tapping the table at the center of the room. Sy frowned and slid his chair back.

Sy: “She’s not coming…”

Leiden: “I should have explained things more properly last time.”

Sy: “..Probably. “

Sy walked over next to Leiden and plopped down beside him. He pat Leiden’s shoulder.

Sy: "We’re really not used to this type, huh?”

Leiden: “Yeah. Austin did all the ‘leadership’ stuff…”

Sy tossed Leiden’s bag to him.

Sy: "Go find her."

Leiden: ".... Why me..?"

Sy: "You're the president.. And besides. You can't let all that work go to waste, right?"

Sy pointed to Leiden's laptop. Leiden sighed and put his bag over his shoulder. Leiden turned and walked out.

>Leiden (3:12): You’re late.

>Leiden (3:15): Where are you at?

[][][][][][][][][][] 5% Remaining..

Leiden stood in the doorway to the gym. He waved to Dannie. She excused herself from practice and jogged over to him.

Dannie: “What’s up?”

Leiden: “Looking for Mio…”

Dannie typed into her phone quickly. A moment later there was a ping as she got a reply.

Dannie: “She’s at the train station. I’ll tell her to wait.”

Leiden: “Thanks, sorry for the bother.”

Dannie took Leiden’s phone and entered her contact information.

Dannie: “That’ll be quicker next time.”

She waved and then turned and jogged back to her club.

Leiden made his way to the train station. He marched around looking for Mio.

>Mio (3:23): I’m skipping today…

>Leiden (3:24): Permission denied. >Mio (3:25): You can’t deny someone permission to go home!

Leiden sat down on the bench next to Mio. She glowered at him.

Mio: “So Dannie lied!”

Leiden: “Sorry, she’s on my side.”

Mio furrowed her brow and turned away. Leiden reached into his bag and pulled out his laptop. He opened it up and sat it on her lap.

Leiden: “These are the top 10 videos from that trend. I also found two behind-the-scenes videos. I’ve also been reading up about virality and stuff like that. I think if we go over this and work together we can make a video that will do better. I also think there’s some simple editing tricks we can use-”

Mio stood up from the bench. She wheeled around towards him. She was practically shaking.

Mio: “If you were looking up all this stuff why didn’t you say so!”

Leiden: “... We never really exchanged contact information. And I figured we’d have a chance to talk in the club room.”

Mio looked down.

Mio: “Even I think I’m pretty annoying about this stuff.”

Leiden: “You’re passionate. That’s not a bad thing.”

Mio: “And if you help me, I’ll probably pester you about it all the time.. There’s just no one else I can talk to about this stuff.”

Leiden: “Yeah I could pretty much tell..”

Mio: “It’s going to be annoying. And.. All I know how to make is stuff like this! I don’t know anything about the complicated movies Sy likes..”

Leiden: “There are a lot of different kinds of movies. I’ll make sure Sy picks some easier ones for you.”

Mio: “I’m not.. As good as Austin…”

Leiden smiled.

Leiden: “She hadn’t even made one movie in her freshman year. You’ve been uploading stuff since middle school. I wouldn’t bet against you.”

Mio swept her skit under her and flopped down beside Leiden.

Mio: “I feel really stupid for not coming today..”

Leiden: “I haven’t exactly made your first week easy. I’m not… a good club president. While you learn to make movies, I’ll be learning that. We’ll figure it out together.”

Mio smiled.

Mio: “You’re actually nice after all, huh?”

Leiden blushed a bit.

Leiden: “Nah. I’m just scared of Dannie.”

Mio laughed loudly.

Mio: “I want.. To make a movie. But first I want to make more videos like this. I want to learn as much as I can. And I want to talk a LOT about each movie I make.”

Leiden: “Well, fortunately, our entire club is about studying films. So..”

Leiden interlaced his fingers as he leaned forward.

Leiden: “What should our first project be, director?”

Mio’s eyes lit up. She grinned a grin from ear to ear. Lobat felt his heart clutch in his chest for a moment. She grabbed his laptop and began to pull up the videos he’d selected. He glanced at her and a sudden, involuntary, intrusive thought bubbled up to the surface before he could squelch it.

‘Cute.’

Start | Back | Forward

#fiction #romance #splice of life

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the-firebird69 · 6 months

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There are a few more things I'd like to say we have kit cars coming out of our ears no we don't we need people to volunteer for the service we have some and they say we need a lot more we have captains for each project if you want to sign on to a certain one please sign up to see who the captain is and you might be able to Captain the same projects under the captain in your area we have thousands of these and they're very serious and we are putting them out there people start making it and you would be intercepting calls for orders we usually that are above and beyond what they can do and most of the time it's all day long and on the computer too and we're building more or less the same thing it's a little bit of quality is faster but it'll be really hard to tell eventually we start building the real thing and we use their name in vain and they're likeness. Really it's a slick system it's really working well and yeah we're doing it with Rolls-Royce Ferrari Porsche lotus Lamborghini BMW and many more and we're going to start doing it with regular automobiles and we need to hire tons of people right now tons and it's all remote viewing unless you're on planet and it's a way out

-we do request you talk to your Co it's important before signing on to anything

-we're in the seat of other items to speak of and I did have a list and I'm going to go over that after we are at war right now with a lot of the people walking around and it's because they're trying to go after what they consider our areas they started screaming and yelling and hooting because they tried to go in and we're wiped out so it doesn't fit and he can't really see what's happening so we're not really sure why they're doing that. And the game is going their way but it's on TV and it's football or something and they're pretty much going to take him in the nose because of that s***. It's not too many groups they're trying so see Trump and we are going to reprise tell him not to and in those areas some of them are going to take

-there's also a huge number of people wandering around with nothing to do all day and their pests and very annoying and they have jobs and they're not doing them and they have armies and they don't run them and they don't have any good excuse or just lazy as hell literally they're not doing a damn thing just bothering my husband what a pain in the ass so I'm putting that up there

-there are a few more things we're going to post and they want me to I'd like to we have a bunch of styles leadership styles character these people are trying to play on it constantly and he's getting berated all the time he can't get through a paragraph for a sentence without somebody doing something stupid and we need to have many more people here to take care of it

-we have an answer so we're going to get to it right now fort Lauderdale is a mess and people are at the hospital slowly they are at the hospitals and the platinum and gold silver white gold and other precious metals and by the truckload it's there's millions of tons in those hospital areas and they're being trucked out on the ground huge huge amounts of it and there's a war there all over the world. And here in Florida there's a massive floor and tons of people have gathered information on the hospitals and they're going after them with gusto it is a huge day they say that 75% of the hospitals are thoroughly engaged and they're 25% are engaged in Shelby momentarily I will take a while to clear them out from below and inside the hospital itself many of these hospitals are going to be ripped apart it's in the walls and the gross places they're not really places of healing anymore and people been doing surgeries and it's gotten really gross there we have to stop them and this is a start there are similar buildings and he says we're to put together emergency construction crews immediately and to set up emergency hospitals and we'll put beds in whatever rooms there are and renovate as we can and we want to have a good number of them so we have control and we own hospital companies I'm going to put it in now they have the idea but we have to do it as an emergency triage and ER and we're going to go in and take all the equipment from the hospitals as they get raided and Thor and Freya liked your idea and they're moving right now and we have selected a lot of buildings

-there's several other things happening one of them is the cities are in boiled the services other than the hospital that are very important and it's temporary shelter assistance and things like that we're sending about emergency buildings and we're handing out flyers and we're even putting signs up the direct people to it and it is regarding social security too it's very important and we're getting these office buildings going right now

It's going to publish because this is huge the hospital metals and other and there's tons of stuff there they found stashes and caches huge atrocities by clones mostly are Chuck full of stuff probably 90% is still left there and a big huge trucks are down there trying to take most of it

Hera

Zues

Olympus

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alanahleadership · 1 year

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Week 1

Think of a time when you were in a leadership situation. What was the experience like for you? In my second semester for my Marketing 2 class (in person), I somehow became the leader of my group for our big group project. It wasn’t official, or expressly said, but I was the one making sure everyone was doing their work properly, proofreading everything, stitching them together, delegating tasks, and I was the one everyone came to for answers, help, and direction. This was my most challenging group project yet. There seemed to have been an issue with communication as my group members did not understand what they needed to do or what was expected of them despite my constant reminders and links to samples that were available to us. An example of this was one group member sent me his work for the second part of the project but didn’t include his references. I sent him a text and in that one text I repeated multiple times (probably 5 times in a single text) that he needed to send me his list of references in APA format. After reading that message, he decided to send me a list of links. Just website links. I had to message him again to remind him that it needed to be in APA format. Another group member wrote her whole section on the topic of MY section that I had already informed the group I completed. I messaged her and explained her mistake and tried to explain to her as best as I could what she was supposed to write about, and she emailed me back with essentially the same mistake… just in different words… That took multiple attempts to sort out. So many things happened over the course of that class. I was sick for the first two weeks, so I was not present for the first part of the project. They did not contact me about the project while I was away, and I was unaware of what was going on. They did the first part of the project incorrectly (which resulted in an F, thankfully our professor let us fix and resubmit it), which I had to take into my own hands and fix (that’s how it all started). The second part of the project was very much like what I described above; we had to do a report and I volunteered to stitch all our work together in a Word document. I did this specifically so I wouldn’t have to put together the PowerPoint. We managed to get a very good mark on the report once everyone got their act together. The third part of the project came around and guess who everyone nominated to put together the power point because I “did such a great job on the report”. ME! Somehow, through all of this, I managed to get everyone on track, and we ended up getting a very good mark. Needless to say… my experience was exhausting.

What did you learn from it? I think if I had to take away anything from that experience it would be how to lead difficult groups of people and deal with difficult situations. It is unfortunate, as they were all very nice to me in person and fed me many a delicious snack. But I do think I’m more equipped to deal with difficult groups now. After that experience, I had another group where two of the members did not contact me and my other group member (who was amazing) until the project was hours away from being due. One of them finally returned and got all his work together, the other did not say anything until minutes before we submitted it. In a situation like that, I would have been nervous to be so strict before, but a couple days before the project was due, I really laid down the law and told the two group members that if they did not do their parts, I and my other active group member would not put their names on the project and we would email the professor about their lack of contribution. When one of them contacted us again, I welcomed his efforts with open arms and helped him figure out what he had to do. When the other contacted us before we submitted it and asked for his name to still be on the project, I firmly stood my ground on the matter and stuck to my words. His excuse for not contacting us for weeks was “work”, which was not good enough for us. It's not easy when people you work with don’t put in as much effort or need extra managing. It's even harder when you must be the one to give someone bad news, but sometimes that’s just part of being a leader.

2. Describe your leadership strengths and skills as you currently know them. Where possible, align these with specific examples. Personable/Charismatic: I like to be friendly and encourage relationships with most everyone I meet, and especially people I have to work with. I believe that work is much more enjoyable and goes by faster and easier when you are doing it with people you are comfortable with. Fostering friendships with people, while still being able to go into “business mode” when needed is something I’m very good at. Persistence: When I am made the leader of a project I will not stop until it's done and done to the best of our abilities. I will not completely give up on people unless they’ve let down the group for too long. I will always try to get everyone on track to where we need to be. Open-minded/ Good listener: I truly love listening to new ideas, different thoughts, and opinions from people regarding a project (or anything, really). I certainly don’t think I know everything, and if someone would like to suggest a better way to do something or a new angle, I’m all ears. Fast learner/ improviser: I don’t always know what I’m doing when I somehow become the unofficial leader of a group, but when my group members are even MORE lost than I am I can usually figure things out pretty quickly in order to report back to the group and explain what we need to do (as if I knew the whole time).

What are the leadership strengths, skills or characteristics that you would like to develop? Why? The leadership characteristic I would like to develop is that certain DRIVE for personal goals. A lot of leaders seem to have this hunger for success that won’t allow them to rest until they achieve it. I wish I could somehow become more like that. I become content far too easily.

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drgreg · 2 years

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The South African Lockdown Challenge

Her digital assistant can even detect modifications in her temper, based mostly on the sound and pitch of Racquel’s voice. Managed-care organizations may not exist in the future; “wellness organizations” may rise of their place. Smart medical gadgets will be within the hands of all Medicaid beneficiaries, empowering them to handle their own health and wellness. Medicaid may look radically totally different by 2040, driven by five major changes.

6th career win and seventh successive Top 10 end. I was saddened to hear on the weekend of the passing in Sydney of one of our former Houghton Presidents, Lollie Meyerowitz. Chad Krost had an incredible dr greg hough spherical on Saturday when he shot 78 off his CH 16 for 46 Stableford points.

I wouldn’t want to live in a world without birds. The Bird Life cruises are simply so special, and everyone cooperating to learn the individuals and the beneficiaries. A really fantastic expertise fantastically put together amidst the current pandemic. Sad to have missed what appears to have been an excellent occasion. I might be searching for particulars of the following cruise.

At the annual Interact Dinner held last week the model new leadership for Interact 2021 have been inducted by Mrs Ros Parker, the President of the Grahamstown Rotary Club. The President of the Kingswood College Interact Club for 2021 is Atang Gabaraane and the Vice-President is Wanda Madasa. A big day in our Kingswood Junior Calendar every year is our Grandparents Day Celebration. As we end the week at present, we share with you a few of our Matric pupil’s artworks from the 12 months. There is something quite special about music – the reality that gamers of all ages and talents can mix to perform.

Jonti Osher made the unimaginable score of 46 Stableford factors, comfortably successful the 4th leg of the 2020 Majors collection. That’s Playing Handicap, and it’s going to be a proportion deduction in your CH depending on what competition is being played on any given day at a club. There are some points attached although, with the fairways and tough rising flat out because the mowers can’t get in, and the bunker faces collapsing and the sand once again being washed away. At some stage, Stuart should dr greg hough get in and do some mowing, which might go away some tracks on the fairways, but this needs to get carried out earlier than the grass will get away from him. I spent a really lazy Sunday as a sofa potato and managed to catch plenty of the golf action for the primary time in a while, and it turned out to be a great day to be watching. The clicker labored overtime on channel-hopping in order to not miss an extreme amount of of the F1, and a few soccer too.

Their conservation success will certainly help in saving tens of millions of threatened seabirds. Flock to Marion Island what a lifetime experience…… may the lotto gód smile in me to expertise this in actual life. A fantastic trip…even though I missed the opportunity.

Great to have cruised in waters much less travelled and to have seen such wonderful birds. To be ready to see the penguins and different birds species in there pure habit must be carried out at least as quickly as in your lifetime. I vote for the Flock to Marion experience as it's a unique opportunity to visit the Southern Ocean and to benefit the chook lifetime of Marion Island. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, very nicely organised, simply superb.

Just having a voyage out on sea is one thing, however providing such a wonderful package to educate/inform the caring inquisitive thoughts is a winner. Then, with the uncertainties and all taken into consideration, positive has brought BirdLife South Africa into more mild as how they managed to tug this tour off…. So very many tourists with all of the arrangements.

I’m crossing fingers for BLSA here in France! If I qualify for a R1000 journey voucher, please donate it in my name to the Mouse-free Marion project. Hopefully there shall be one other alternative to this unique vacation spot. We are stewards of our stunning blue-green planet.

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woodworkingpastor · 2 years

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Legacy: What we will leave behind? -- 2 Timothy 3:10-4:8 -- October 16, 2022

Introduction

We finish up today with the sermon series A Big Gospel in a World of Little Things, wrestling with some of the unexpected ways the Gospel shapes our lives and invites us to consider our mission and ministry in a world where the powerful influences of pandemic and partisanship, economy and consumerism, violence and idolatry feel like they are the big things and the Gospel we proclaim is something we try to fit in and among and around those things—when space and time allows. It is absolutely by design that we finish this series with this sermon on Council Meeting Sunday! What a great opportunity to continue this conversation.

The words that have formed the inspiration for these sermons came from worship songs at the Inhabit Conference I attended in late April. The conversations and presentations that took place there were led by church leaders who have realized that the model of congregational life that assumes people come “here” for spiritual nurture, rest, and recovery from our stressful lives and then go out “there” for our jobs, social events, and many good outreach projects isn’t working like it once did. We heard many encouraging stories for people who planted churches in community centers and coffee shops among millennials and homeless people, and who are keenly attentive to the needs and the beauty and the ugliness of their communities. In so many ways, the conference embodied our denomination’s Compelling Vision Statement in magnificent ways:

Together, as the Church of the Brethren, we will passionately live and share the radical transformation and holistic peace of Jesus Christ through relationship-based neighborhood engagement. To move us forward, we will develop a culture of calling and equipping disciples who are innovative, adaptable, and fearless.

Or, as we’re learning to say,

Jesus in the Neighborood.

It is this statement, in conversation with our Scripture text this morning, that brings me to the last “word” in this sermon series: Legacy. What will we leave behind?

Paul’s final instructions

Paul’s second letter to Timothy is likely the last recorded words written by Paul in the New Testament. Nearing the end of his life, he writes to his young protégé, offering a fascinating combination of reflections of the current state of his ministry and his hopes for a future that is fully in Jesus’ hands. He leaves instructions for Timothy to help him navigate congregational leadership in apocalyptic times; meaning, times in which the things that we have come to rely on to provide structure and help us make sense of our world can no longer be relied on. How will we live?

The task, as it turns out, remains the same: we are to make disciples—people whose daily lives and interactions with the world around them are increasingly shaped by the Gospel—and to do this in constant interaction with Scripture. The job will not be easy, and the task will never be done, but it remains the task.

Furthermore, there will be times in our lives when that job is easier and there will be times when that job is harder. To put it into Paul’s terms, we are to “proclaim the message…whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.” Our times are clearly trending in the “unfavorable” direction.

But let’s frame this differently for a moment. Earlier this week I listened to a podcast on the value of Sabbath keeping—this radical, Scriptural idea that we ought to take one day out of every seven and rest. No work! Can we imagine doing that? Most people can’t. The podcast speakers talked about how much easier it used to be to give our Sundays to worship and to rest when all the stores were closed and there weren’t any sports leagues for our children to be involved in. When culture made it possible for Sunday to look just like every other day, people—Christians included—just said, “Sure.”

In his book Canoeing the Mountains, author Tod Bolsinger describes an issue of the Los Angeles Times from December 1963 that includes stories on “the nine-thousand member Hollywood Presbyterian Church, and a list of daily Bible readings for the upcoming week” (p. 12). The point of all of this is that it is easier to follow Jesus when the culture is on your side. As that goes away, our work of making disciples and allowing our lives to be shaped by Scripture becomes more difficult.

The challenge for us is to neither get caught up in nostalgia for the old, favorable days gone by nor to throw a pity party about how everybody is out to get us. We must deal with reality.

If you remember the first Sunday of this sermon series, we heard a Moment for Mission that described Lewis and Clark’s journey to the Pacific Ocean, and how their already difficult job was made even more difficult by the fact that the fundamental assumption of their journey was wrong. Everyone believed that the mountains in the western part of this continent were similar to the mountains in the eastern part of the continent, and that the attempt to find a river route to the Pacific would succeed. Obviously, everyone in the United States government was wrong because no one had yet hiked out there to look, and because of that, the Corps of Discovery faced some unfavorable times. But it was not Lewis and Clark’s fault that what was known about the East was not relevant for exploring the West. It did not mean that they were bad explorers or even were doomed to failure. One of their most significant realizations was that the assumption that “no one knew what the western mountains looked like” was false. There were plenty of people who knew that information—the Native tribes who called the plains and Rocky Mountains home. Lewis and Clark’s legacy was significantly shaped by their willingness to forge new relationships and to learn from people they were used to ignoring.

Similarly, in the sermon on that first Sunday of this series we met the Hebrew midwives whose lives were made more difficult by Pharoah’s instruction to kill baby boys upon their birth. Being a midwife was particularly unfavorable in their circumstances. Again, their difficulties were not their fault; it’s that their circumstances had changed in some difficult ways.

In Paul’s case, what I find fascinating is essentially his pastor’s report. Notice the ways Paul says his ministry circumstances are unfavorable:

The things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. He was called to the ministry; embarked on his first missionary journey; threatened with stoning as a heretic in Iconium, and actually stoned in Lystra by people who had come from Iconium figuring if they couldn’t get him in their own town, they’d chase him to the next and get him there.

Wicked people and imposters all around. People actively opposing his work in significant ways.

The reality that people prefer preachers who tell them what they want to hear.

Demas deserted Paul.

Alexander the coppersmith did Paul great harm.

No one supported Paul at his first defense.

But even as he lists these difficulties, Paul also tells all the ways ministry remains favorable:

God rescued him from his persecutions (which are themselves signs of his faithfulness).

Scripture is valuable.

Timothy is pastor in Ephesus and Tychicus is on his way there.

Crescens is in Galatia.

Titus is in Dalmatia.

A crown of righteousness awaits.

Paul’s love for Jesus is not shaped by his present circumstances. Because of that, he can admit that even though everything is not good, everything is OK. Can you imagine such a thing? Are we thinking the same thing about ourselves? Does that language fit? I hope so!

Everything is not good, but everything is OK. Paul has learned from Jesus, the master teacher, to accept the world as it really is. Are there some problems that are proving difficult to deal with? Yes, there are. Are there some amazing things happening through people and congregations who are increasingly learning to love Jesus in their particular communities? Absolutely! Paul loves Jesus so much and has found such truth and power and identity in Jesus calling him to be a missionary that he can live with no illusions on how things are going. Challenges exist. Some times will be less favorable for ministry than others. The difficulties are not an indictment on his character, his ability, or God’s love for him. But neither is a commitment to a tradition an excuse to live in the past. There remains work to be done, and the legacy Paul leaves to Timothy and other church leaders who follow after him is this gift of digging down deep within both the Gospel and our local circumstances to make disciples who are gripped by the vision of the heavenly kingdom and filled with hopeful courage to lead into the future to see that vision become a little more real, a bit more visible than it was when they began.

Our legacy

Deep down, I believe we get this. I’ve been reading the book The Making of a Mystic recently, and in it, the author says when you call people to a “further spiritual journey beyond inspiration and excitement, not everyone is going to tune in” (107). It is one thing for people to go to a concert, or listen to a podcast, or read inspirational devotional literature—different kinds of “mountain top experience”—and get excited about their faith. We absolutely encourage these encounters with Jesus—and we encourage them with our dollars; they are in our budget for a reason, because we know that lives are transformed on the mountaintops.

Brethren also know that spiritual maturity means that what inspires us on the peak sustains us on the path. It’s easy and good to be inspired and excited by a worship service or a revival meeting or an event like NYC or camp or Pilgrimage, and then slip back into the routine of inconsistent spiritual living, until the next event that inspires and excites us.

Not everyone wants to cultivate what Eugene Peterson calls “a long obedience in the same direction” and find spiritual strength in the ongoing, day-to-day, unremarkable aspects of worship and prayer and forgiving and reconciling and loving. But those are the disciplines of the path.

Brethren faith practice at its best shapes us to the longer and more challenging commitment of following Jesus over the long haul. And I believe if there is anyone who has the tools in their toolboxes for rising to the challenges of our current apocalyptic, unfavorable ministry season, then it is us. If anyone ought to have the vocabulary and the theology and the imagination to be able to figure out how to proceed when we realize many of our ministry assumptions have changed, it ought to be Christians! Our very lives are defined by grace and transformation! We are literally not what we once were—

everything old has passed way; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).

So what will be our legacy? That’s what we need to determine. But let me give you a picture:

Imagine it’s the third Sunday of October, 2047—25 years from now. (I looked that up, that will be October 20.) I don’t mean to be morbid, but first ask yourself if you expect to be here in 25 years? None of us are promised tomorrow, so please don’t be too offended by the question! Think about the children and youth who are here today, and imagine that they’re still here in 2047, and they are the deacons, and board chairs, and preachers, and music leaders. What decisions might we make in 2022 that will be celebrated in 2047?

There are a few of you here who might reasonably expect to be here with your children in 25 years. Can you imagine a Sunday dinner when one of your now adult children asks, “How did our church come to make the decisions that brought us here?” Your answer might go something like this: “Let me tell you about 2020—when we had a really encouraging congregational retreat that was followed by a pandemic and some really difficult politics in our nation. When things returned to normal, we realized that much of what we had been so excited about in early 2020 wasn’t working so well, and we came to see we had some decisions to make: we could continue in the pattern and rhythms that had served us so well for so long, or we could recognize that what got us to the first quarter of 2020 was not going to take us into the future. We chose to seek the leading of the Spirit in a new way; to trust God and one another; to risk change; to be a church that would serve the needs of our children and grandchildren, even if we would not be alive to see them. We continue to value the traditions that served us for so many years, but our legacy to you was to learn how to be the church in an “unfavorable” season. We followed the lead of the denomination to prioritize being Jesus in the Neighborhood, and your presence in church is a testimony to that hard work. Our love for Jesus gave us the strength to embrace our moment and give him the glory forever and ever.

Many of us have different ideas and perspectives and thoughts on this matter. We should hear them all. For me, the most pressing question for today is, “How can we be a church where our children and grandchildren find faith?”

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findingjoynweirdstuff · 3 years

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Dream SMP Recap (May 31/2021) - Deck of Cards With a Green Smile on Them

Wilbur and Tommy visit Las Nevadas to have some words with Quackity.

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VOD LINKS:

Punz

Ponk

Foolish

Tommyinnit

Wilbur Soot

Captain Puffy

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- Punz mines out an entire chunk of the server

- Wilbur and Tommy meet at L’manhole. Tommy brings Wilbur to the quarry and shows him the Tommyboxes full of stone

- Tommy and Wilbur walk down the Prime Path and Wilbur notices all the new changes in the builds, including that Purpled’s UFO has been destroyed. Wilbur claims that someone’s being “a copycat” with TNT, figuring out exactly how it was destroyed

(Wilbur is also repeatedly puzzled by the appearance of Oogway throughout the server)

- Wilbur tells Tommy that he received a book: “PROJECT NEVADAS.” It rings a bell, and Tommy says it’s Quackity’s new place that he’s been staying out of

- Wilbur tells Tommy that the book says to come to Nevadas (not saying what it actually reads), and Tommy leads Wilbur there

- The last time Wilbur saw Quackity, they were fighting together for L’manburg -- but he gets the impression, judging by everyone else aside from Jack Manifold, Tommy and Phil, that everyone probably dislikes him. He assumes Quackity won’t have the best impression of him

- Tommy’s never been to Las Nevadas, but the person who told him about it said it was just a little town. They’re awestruck by it as they arrive

- Quackity comes up to meet them, surprised to see Wilbur alive. Tommy asks what happened to his face, but also notices that his piss neck is gone

- Wilbur says he’s glad to see Quackity out of the presidential outfit, and he never thought Quackity was fit for the Vice President role anyway. Quackity tells them that he owns this entire place

Wilbur: “Oh, so you’re -- you’re like a -- a President, then!”

Quackity: “I’m the President, man!”

Wilbur: “...You’re the President.”

- He shows Quackity the book and accepts Quackity’s “invitation” to work alongside him. Tommy asks to move in as well

Quackity: “Wilbur...That was not an invitation, I’m sorry Wilbur...That’s not an invitation. Wilbur, my nation will not be subject to your unpredictability.”

- Wilbur tells Quackity that while he may have been unpredictable in the past, he’s turned over a new leaf and doesn’t lie anymore, he’s forgotten everything he knew about TNT

Wilbur: “Quackity, look me in the eyes...I am your servant. I am at your service, I have run countries, I’ve won elections, I’ve done everything you would need in a leadership role, Quackity! Even not in leadership -- I can be, you know, assistant to the President! Just, I...Quackity, this is everything I’ve dreamt of in a solid marble and quartz...Quackity, you’re making a mistake, man, you need to let me in--”

Tommy: “Wil, this is so cool!”

Wilbur: “TOMMY, SHUT UP! I mean -- Tommy, come over here.”

- Quackity tells him he’s not going to let the same thing that happened to L’manburg happen to Las Nevadas. Tommy points out that it looks like they’re kissing.

- Wilbur walks around the sandy area asking what Quackity owns, and Quackity owns all of it. Quackity still means to discuss things with Tommy. Wilbur makes his way to the forest next to Las Nevadas

Wilbur: “What’s the point in capitalism without healthy competition?”

- Quackity asks what Wilbur’s about to do. Wilbur leads them over to a nearby spot and welcomes Tommy to their new “headquarters” as they “break ground” there.

- Tommy doesn’t want to start a new country, preferring Las Nevadas. He also repeats that Wilbur and Quackity looked like they were kissing and he feels like he’s getting third-wheeled

- Quackity and Tommy talk one-on-one and Quackity reminds Tommy about how they spoke about the hotel and possibly working together. Tommy brings up Quackity’s eye again, remembering how Quackity has had many “conditions” for a long time

Quackity: “You ever hear about the Butcher Army, Tommy? One day, we were going to execute Technoblade, and we got in a...we got a fight. And this is how this thing showed up on my face.”

- Tommy is surprised that he went to kill Technoblade and asks when this was, if this was during his exile

Tommy: “You’re meaning to tell me that you put in all of the effort to kill Techno instead of helping me?”

- Quackity says he’d be happy to sit down and discuss it, that he’s not Tommy’s enemy. He gives Tommy the choice: Tommy is welcome to join him, even if Wilbur isn’t. He can offer Tommy a management position, a job

- Tommy goes to speak with Wilbur and leaves Quackity, noticing what Wilbur’s built

Wilbur: “It’s a penis of safety!”

- Wilbur asks Tommy to work with him. He won’t stop Tommy, but Tommy is all Wilbur’s got. Jack Manifold’s busy and Phil has ideas about authoritarianism Wilbur disagrees with

Wilbur: “Tommy, I don’t want to make a country. I’m past that, man. I want to make an HQ. I want to make a place where we can be safe for once. Tommy, it’s been so long since we’ve been safe. And man, you deserve it. You’ve been through so much, done so much. Tommy, you’ve changed the world, and all you have to show for it is some scars and some trauma. Tommy, you deserve this safety and this sanctuary, and that’s what I want to make with you, and you won’t get it over there. You know what they say about casinos? It’s all lights and it’s all plastic, it’s all glitter, that there’s nothing of substance. Do you know what has substance, Tommy? Family. Blood. Please stay with me, Tommy.”

- He tells Tommy he needs to make a choice now.

Wilbur: “I’m not gonna hold you back. If you pick Las Nevadas, what am I gonna do, man? What am I gonna do? I’d never hurt you. I’d never want anything bad for you, Tommy. You can go with whatever you want, but...Just know what you’ll be doing to me. That’s all I wanna say, man.”

Tommy: “There was a time when you weren’t here on this server, this SMP, when I went against...put a lot of things to the side that I shouldn’t have. I prioritized a lot of things -- I put revenge over humanity, humaneness. I guess all I’m seeking now is just someone that’s gonna be honest with me and a place that I can feel safe. I...I betrayed Technoblade, and I just couldn’t admit it. And I did the wrong thing with Tubbo, but...”

Wilbur: “This can be a safe place for them.”

- Tommy agrees to stay here, but dislikes that Wilbur has built the penis into a wall. The two start building a penis in the lake and Quackity comes over.

Quackity: “History repeats itself, Tommy. You’re just letting this guy use you. You’re letting him emotionally manipulate you.”

- He and Wilbur start talking over each other, bickering

Quackity: “WHO DESTROYED L’MANBURG, TOMMY? THINK ABOUT THAT. THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A SECOND.”

Wilbur: “WHO RAN AGAINST YOU? WHO LAUGHED AS WE WERE EXILED? WHO CHEERED AS WE WERE THROWN OUT OF OUR NATION THAT WE BUILT? THAT WE BUILT?”

Quackity: “Who wanted a better outcome for L’manburg, Tommy? Who did? Who wanted to run a ‘democratic election’ with just one party? He’s right up there, Tommy! He’s right up there above you--”

Wilbur: “Remember the pit, Tommy. Remember what happened in the pit. Don’t. Trust. People. Who would’ve fought you in the pit.”

- They continue arguing.

- Tommy gets a chance to speak and says none of that made him feel safe. Quackity apologizes and offers them a tour of Las Nevadas. They head over and Wilbur apologizes as well

- Quackity shows them around, including the restaurant that they’ll need to hire people for (the villager is no longer there). Wilbur tells Tommy he’d be fine with Tommy working here as long as he’d still hang out with Wilbur too

- They start going to the casino (Wilbur and Quackity both hurry to block off the strip club) and Quackity brings them into the gambling hall, giving them diamonds to try out the machine with

- After using the diamonds, Tommy puts Linda the shovel into the machine and loses the shovel in the machine. Quackity takes them out of the building and to the top of the Needle. Tommy remarks that it would be a good place to jump off of

- Quackity turns to Wilbur and asks how he’s alive. Wilbur explains that he was swapped with Ghostbur

- Quackity remembers the last conversation he and Wilbur had together, just after the elections. The conversation they had after the debates. (Wilbur looks at the “PROJECT NEVADAS” book again)

Quackity wants to “pick Wilbur’s brain” again

- Wilbur’s lost everything. He’s lost decades, he’s lost most of the people who cared about him and many don’t even know he’s back yet

Wilbur: “Life is paved with the mistakes you make, and it’s not about when you made the mistakes or what you did, it’s about how you can improve from them, and...I guess that’s what I’m trying to do.”

- Wilbur’s seen Jack Manifold, Phil, Ranboo, Tommy and now Quackity so far, but there are a lot of other people who he’d like to talk to and apologize to and thank them

- Tommy tells Quackity he doesn’t want to sit back and run a food stand. Wilbur gets things done. Quackity respects his decision, but this is something else, not another L’manburg

- Quackity asks Wilbur about the revival again, and Wilbur admits that it was Dream who brought him back. Wilbur has many people he wants to thank and say sorry to, and Dream is one of them, as he saved Wilbur’s life. Dream is his hero.

- Quackity asks when this happened, and Wilbur says it’s been a while since, that hopefully Ghostbur isn’t too lonely in Limbo

Quackity: [About Dream] “He’s not been lonely. Wilbur, Wilbur, I think his loneliness is the last of his concerns. I’ve been keeping him company, uh...as he’s been there. I’ve been visiting him quite frequently.”

Wilbur: “What, Dream or Ghostbur? I’m talking about Ghostbur.”

Quackity: “I’m talking about Dream.”

Wilbur: “Oh, gosh! You’ve been visiting him? Oh, he must love that!”

Quackity: “Yeah, no, he likes the company. He likes the company for sure. Uh...it’s a cool little thing, uh...Tommy, you know about this, right?”

Tommy: “Yeah, yeah, Wilbur -- that’s how I got to go and see Dream."

- Tommy tells Wilbur that Dream killed him, to which Quackity says Sam’s bettered the security system (Wilbur’s surprised to hear the prison has a warden and a system to visit)

Tommy: “Why would anyone want to go to the prison? You’ve been going, Big Q, to torture the shit out of him, I’ve heard...”

Quackity: “Tommy, what? Tommy...Tommy, where did you -- where did you get that from? What are you talking about?”

Tommy: “Well that’s how -- I assumed, ‘cause of the scar, you’ve been going to beat the shit out of him?”

Quackity: “Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, don’t say that -- not even as a joke, Tommy, come on.”

- Wilbur says goodbye to Quackity (he has “work to do”) and leaves with Tommy. He’s overjoyed that he can meet Dream through the visitation system, while Tommy protests

- Wilbur throws Tommy the “PROJECT NEVADAS” book, saying that Quackity was writing about the old Wilbur, that Tommy made the right choice in not joining him.

- Wilbur promises Tommy that going to visit Dream to thank him isn’t a bad decision. He wants to tie up loose ends. Dying is a big deal. This is like a funeral, saying goodbye

Wilbur: “Tommy, all I’m saying is, you know...what could go wrong in a prison?”

- Wilbur leaves.

- Tommy asks Quackity for an Ender Chest

- He listens to “Cat,” alone in the rain, on a small wooden bench by the lake.

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Upcoming Events:

- The final Egg lore stream

- Puffy’s lore

- Tales From the SMP: “Space Race”

- Ponk’s lore stream

- Dream’s lore video

- Sapnap’s possible lore stream

- Awesamdude lore stream

#dream smp #dream smp recaps #long posts

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