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cybrsan · 1 year

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Cybrsan’s ATEEZ Masterlist

Imagines

ATEEZ as Benders - ATLA Inspired

Series

Ode to ATEEZ: An anthology of standalone stories based on ATEEZ’s title tracks and singles. Each will have a different plot and pairing, ranging from one member x reader to multiple members x reader.

Together in Harmony: A collection of interconnected stories where ATEEZ are all benders. Based on the ATLA universe.

One-Shots

Light It Up! [smut]: The year is 2077, and the world is a lawless dystopia where tech giants and major corporations hold all the power. Kim Hongjoong and Park Seonghwa are an infamous criminal duo who have made names for themselves fighting against the “techno brainwashing” of society. Discovering they’re on the brink of getting caught, they decide to go out with a bang—and who better to help them than their favorite plaything?

Pirate King [smut]: You are playing a dangerous game with an even more dangerous man, and you don’t know how much longer it can go on before everything falls apart around you.

Requests

93. “Say you want me, and I’m yours.” + 123. “Fuck you.” “When?” [angst, fluff, smut]

Tarot

General Reading [July 2023]

Timestamps

12:47 AM [smut]

One-Shots

Vignette: Duty [no pairing]: Seonghwa has been working toward one goal for as long as he can remember, which is making his father proud. To do so, he needs to win the Nightingale commendation, be the best of the best. But when he falls a step behind Hongjoong, he has to reconsider what it is he truly wants.

Requests

106. “I’m going to fuck you until you forget that asshole’s name.” + 107. “Bend over the desk, love.” [smut]

Requests

1. “Come over here and make me.” + 14. “You heard me. Take. It. Off.” + 36. “You were put on this earth to give me a headache.” [angst, fluff]

106. "I'm going to fuck you until you forget that asshole's name." [smut]

125. “Here, let me help you.” + 148. “I really want to kiss you right now.” “Then do it.” [fluff]

Tarot

General Reading [Aug 2023]

One-Shots

Party of Three [smut] ft. Wooyoung: Things take an unexpected turn when Wooyoung walks in on you and San.

Roll The Dice [smut]: In the wake of his recent world tour, your boyfriend has decided to treat you to a night out in Las Vegas to commemorate his success and your upcoming anniversary. Though the city is renowned for its gambling, the two of you play a much more interesting game of chance.

Three Hearts as One [angst] ft. Wooyoung: It had been a good day. That should have been the first warning sign that something was about to go horribly wrong. After all, how much peace can you expect in an apocalypse?

Tarot

General Reading [July 2023]

Requests

10. “I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice.” + 67. “Uh, am I interrupting?” [smut]

Imagines

Bouncy!Wooyoung in the Mafia

One-Shots

Party of Three [smut] ft. San: Things take an unexpected turn when Wooyoung walks in on you and San.

Three Hearts as One [angst] ft. San: It had been a good day. That should have been the first warning sign that something was about to go horribly wrong. After all, how much peace can you expect in an apocalypse?

Series

Treasure [angst, fluff, smut]: Wooyoung is moon-blessed, a waterbender born under the Siren Moon that rises once every 88 years. His blessing is believed to be his unique and powerful healing abilities that he has coined “Wavesong.” However, his true gift is that of his prophetic dreams, glimpses of futures yet to unfold—and you just happen to be the subject of his recent visions.

Tarot

General Reading [July 2023]

Requests

25. “It hurts…” “What?” “Loving someone who doesn’t love you…” + 29. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” + 34. “Why are you so cold?” [angst]

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 1 year

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Does the "This is all a dream orchestrated by Malleus" relate to the Yuuverse with all the Yuus repeatedly going through the story over and over again? I have seen people theorize that every time a Yuu fails, a new one starts over and I'm too sleepy to actually relate this theory to the new events that just transpired.

I think you’re talking about two popular but different theories? 🤔 (Though now it definitely seems like those two theories are converging into one…?)

There were some that believed in the time loop theory. Some powerful entity (usually said to be Crowley) summons new Yuus every time the Yuu from the previous time loop fails and/or dies. It is said that the resets usually occur when Yuu is killed by an Overblot, with the most common “death by Overblot” owing to Grim. Some also embellish the theory with ideas about Crowley’s motives and whether he is a good person or not.

There is an extension of time loop theory—the “Yuu is dead” theory; in “Yuu is dead”, the player character is theorized to be someone who died while crossing the road (yup, an isekai classic; the manga and light novel Yuu all got transported at a crosswalk), and Crowley summoned them into Twisted Wonderland after their passing to serve his own needs. Sometimes people will point to Yuu emerging from a coffin and/or Crowley avoiding the topic of bringing them home (since it’s impossible due to their “dead” status) as proof of Yuu being dead. Both time loop and Yuu is dead theory primarily stem from the many iterations of Yuus across various official TWST media (the manga, the light novel, etc).

Others believed in the dream theory, in which (much like the original Alice in Wonderland), everything in Twisted Wonderland is just a dream that someone is having. There are variations of the dream theory depending on who the dreamer is, but the most common ones I’ve seen assign the designation of dreamer to either Yuu (who has been having prophetic dreams in the main story) and Malleus (whose Disney counterpart is strongly associated with inducing sleep). Sometimes dream theory also includes evidence backed up by Silver, who appears to have some kind of vague association with Yuu and their dreams. It is worth noting that some fans do not like dream theory because they feel that it devalues the experiences had and the relationships formed if nothing was “real”.

As I said before (given what we know of the most recent main story update), it seems like people are now combining different aspects of those two theories to make a new one. The update is still pretty fresh, so I haven’t yet had the time to read up and acclimate myself with the various time loop-dream theory combinations.

One thing that I will note is interesting is??? I remember Yana saying a few years ago that we should treat TWST’s events and vignettes as AUs separate from the main story, and at the time I thought it was to make things easier for the writing team (so they didn’t have to worry about timeline stuff). But now???? I’m wondering if every event and vignette was actually a part of the dream world… The evidence is (sort of??) there!!

I normally wouldn’t include gameplay mechanics as part of a theory (since I compartmentalize meta from the story/characters/lore), but I feel that the gloves are off for this since Malleus initiated what was essentially a fourth-wall break at the end of 7-37 (booting us back to the main screen of Twisted Wonderland after forcing everyone to sleep). The part where he casts his spell is even named “Forced Game Over”, which is very on the nose for a character who is not tied to technology other than being really bad at using it. He also says a lot of foreboding things about how “it would be better for fictional characters to stay as they are forever” (not an exact translation, I’m just generalizing).

AnYWAY, my thought is??? Are the events and/or vignettes meant to be the characters dreaming (not that Malleus necessarily created the dream world, but the dream world is like their collective unconscious and/or everyone having individual dream/their own iterations)???? Because Malleus promises to send them to a world where they can be “heroes”, a place where they can find “happy endings”, where no one has to leave. Most events and/or vignettes have very carefree vibes to them or just generally non-serious conflicts. They’re usually full of tales of carefree school days.

The vignettes and events also being part of the dream world also explains why Lilia (whose magic was supposedly waning is still able to use his quite proficiently), and why some characters who would normally be somewhat hostile towards each other seem more mellowed out in some events (ie Epel and Vil having an amicable relationship in the first Halloween event when they didn’t learn to get along until episode 5, which takes place in late winter). It would also explain why sometimes main story happenings are referenced in vignettes and events, but the vignette and event happenings are not mentioned in the main story. Characters are bringing knowledge of reality into the dreams, but when they “awaken” from those dreams, they cannot recall all the details from them.

Another detail that’s pretty suspicious is the animation that plays when you’re Groovying a card 👁️ 👄 👁️ What covers the screen when you do??? That’s right—thorns, just like when Malleus casted his unique magic. Was this TWST’s indirect way of cluing us in that the whole damn game was just a dream?????? The title whenever we boot up the game was staring at us in the face with the “answer” all along: Twisted Wonderland. A dreamy place full of wonders—but just that, a dream.

xbsjsvwisview. JUST SoMETHING TO THINK ABOUT, I DuNNO 🤡 Sorry for sounding like a college professor lecturing on Disney pretty boys—

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tawaifeddiediaz · 2 years

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(in which they were accidentally or not prophetic)

[Image ID: eight large rectangular gifs. They are alternating of Ryan Guzman and Oliver Stark from this season 2 featurette, and shots from multiple episodes of 911. The four gifs from 911 are in black-and-white and have two scenes blended into each other:

GIF 1: Ryan and Oliver talking. The text reads, "I would go outof my way for anybody and everybody that I'd given my heart to. I believe it. Yeah. I've seen it."

GIF 2: Two blended gifs of Buck and Eddie from 4.14, when Eddie tells Buck about him being Christopher's legal guardian.

GIF 3: Ryan and Oliver sitting together, talking. The shot is now zoomed in with a black vignette on the corners, and Ryan is looking at Oliver as they joke around. The text reads, "Remember that time when you...I saved you. You saved me."

GIF 4: Buck dragging Eddie under the firetruck in 4.14, overlaid with Eddie telling Buck that the tsunami was a natural disaster and hence wasn't Buck's fault in 3.03.

GIF 5: Ryan and Oliver talking. The text reads, "I held him in my arms. Gently though."

GIF 6: Buck and Eddie embracing tightly at Buck's welcome back party in 3.01, overlaid with Buck hauling a near-delirious Eddie up to help him into the firetruck in 4.14.

GIF 7: A close-up of Oliver saying, "Really gentle. Looks tough but really gentle, tender touch."

GIF 8: Eddie's thumb pressed to the base of Buck's throat in 3.03 as he reassures him that he doesn't trust anyone with his son more than Buck, overlaid with Buck's hand nearly cupping Eddie's face in 4.14 as he pleads for him to hang on.

/end ID]

bonus:

[Bonus ID: two large rectangular gifs:

BONUS GIF 1: Black and white gif of the electrician from 5.16 commenting "you should take this act on the road." in reference to Buck rambling about the firetruck crushing his leg and the myriad of events that came after it.

BONUS GIF 2: The titular shot for The Stark and Guzman Show Ryan and Oliver are both dressed in the LAFD uniform, and they hold up their hands in mock guns as if in a spy movie. Oliver grins widely before flipping to be back-to-back with Ryan, and both of them are laughing.

/end ID]

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wowbright · 1 year

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Fic: Enough

Klaine Valentine’s Challenge 2023: “You're the Best Thing” by The Style Council (Day 5 prompt)

Words: ~2,825 words

Rating: Teen and Up

Summary: Kurt wants to know why Blaine arranged dinner with the lesbians.

I’m back with more vignettes from my Mormon!Klaine universe for Klaine Valentines 2023! This vignette takes place right after yesterday’s One Body. Mutual pining, and Kurt thinks Blaine is straight. Kinda angsty but also a little comfort maybe?

My Mormon!Klaine Masterpost.

Notes: Jana and Liesl are Jan the jeweler and Liz her partner from 4.22 “All or Nothing.”

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“Thank you for coming over,” Liesl said as they stood at the front doorway getting ready to leave. She reached out and put a hand on each of the elders, giving their forearms a little squeeze. The touch was technically against the rules, but so was the rest of the evening. Kurt wasn’t going to say anything. “I'm sure you're supposed to spend your time with people who are more likely to convert, but it really was a delight. I haven't talked about religion like that since I was probably your age, staying up until three in the morning with my friends and pondering the big questions in life. You two remind me of my younger self, in some ways. Yes, I know that makes no sense coming from an old German, Catholic lesbian. But please. Stay in touch. I want to see where your lives lead you.”

Jana crooked her hand around Kurt’s upper arm and leaned toward his ear. “I hope you’ll forgive me if I came on too strong. I'm terribly stubborn. Liesel can tell you. It's a fault as much as it is a blessing.”

Kurt turned toward her. The warmth of her smile lit up the evening. She was a paradox that way. She poked and prodded at long-covered wounds, awakening pain that Kurt had become adept at ignoring. But there was a goodness to her, a kindness, that shone through. She understood his injuries and wanted to mend them. But just as a doctor couldn't cure every patient, her understanding couldn't heal him. “Don't worry about it,” he said. “I’m just as stubborn.”

“I know,” she smiled wistfully and then, to his utter surprise and in a very unGerman fashion, hugged him.

She didn't feel like his mother. His mother had always been bigger than him. She didn't feel like his mother's mother, either. But her embrace felt familiar in a way he couldn't explain. Maybe Blaine was right. Maybe somewhere deep inside, we really could remember the friends we had made in the pre-existence.

Blaine was out of words. He'd used so many of them over dinner, and held so many back, and he was still holding words back now, because Liesl and Jana, who had been so easy to talk to, were behind them. And Kurt, who was usually the easiest to talk to but tonight felt impossible to talk to, was next to him.

Blaine was angry. He was hurt. Because he’s straight and it doesn’t personally affect him.

It wasn't true. It wasn't true at all. Kurt just kept assuming he was straight. And part of that was Blaine’s fault. But it wasn't all Blaine’s fault. Blaine had never said anything about falling in love with girls, or thinking they were sexy, or even wanting to marry one. Had he assumed he would? Yes. But he’d never claimed to want it.

And it should be obvious. How could it not be patently obvious? Kurt was everything to Blaine. His love meant more than anything. The church, his parents, his granddad, his bishop, the apostles and prophets—their opinions and judgments no longer mattered. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall join with his beloved: and they shall be one flesh.

That's what Blaine wanted. To be one with Kurt.

Blaine said it and said it, but Kurt never heard. I love you at the end of their morning prayers. I love you when they went to bed at night. I love you at random moments, when Kurt filled him with delight. I love you when Kurt cried. I love you more than you know. I love you more than anything. I love you. I love you. I love you.

There had been a moment at dinner, when Jana and Liesl had been talking about being young and in love—when you’ve met the right person, you know—and Kurt’s eyes met his, and for a moment, Blaine could've sworn Kurt knew how he felt, and felt the same way.

But then the moment was gone, and Blaine wasn't sure anymore.

Blaine might have the air of a Disney Prince. But that didn't mean Kurt was in love with him. It didn't mean Blaine was worth abandoning dreams of the Celestial Kingdom over.

“You're awfully quiet,” Kurt said when they were several blocks away from Liesl and Jana's house, having gone right past the bus stop in silent agreement that tonight was a night for walking.

“You are, too,” Blaine said.

Kurt didn't answer. He looked ahead. The sun was setting behind them. In front of them, the clouds were a steely gray.

Are you running toward life in service to the church, or are you running away from life outside?

Jana’s words kept repeating in Kurt’s head. Why had he come on this mission? His dad didn't expect it of him. His bishop had recommended it, of course; but after Finn died, he'd said they could delay it. He could stay in Lima and help out his parents for a little longer. There was no hurry. It could happen in God’s time.

But there had been a hurry for Kurt. He’d needed out of Lima. He’d needed to stop being so sad. And how could he stop being sad when everything reminded him of his family's loss? He didn't want to drive past McKinley High and see that accursed practice field out of the corner of his eye. He didn't want to run into his friends from the glee club, because they either talked about Finn or they didn't talk about Finn, and when they didn't talk about Finn, his memory loomed even more than when they did. He didn't want to walk past Finn's bedroom. He didn't want to go through Finn's stuff.

And he had planned for a mission, anyway. Ever since he'd been a little kid, he had dreamed about becoming a missionary. About spreading the gospel and Jesus’s love.

Also, it was expected of him. Heavenly Father expected him to go on a mission. It was necessary for Kurt’s refinement. Kurt had held no illusions that it would make him not gay. But he’d hoped it would make him holier. Maybe sacrificing two years of his life—never wearing anything interesting or dancing alone in his bedroom to loud showtunes or spending hours going through fashion magazines and redesigning the clothes he found in their pages—maybe that would teach him to sacrifice in other ways. If he could learn to live without the things that made life sparkle, then maybe he could learn to live without the hope of ever falling in love. He could adjust to what the Plan of Salvation offered him. He could stay celibate for a lifetime, earning himself a a wife and family and worlds without end in the afterlife. Or maybe he would develop the strength to marry Mercedes, if she converted, or someone like her—someone who understood him and made him laugh, someone he respected and loved. It wouldn't be like falling, but it would be good enough. Their children would make up for what their marriage lacked. Each day would be a struggle, but there would be rewards along the way.

Are you running toward life in service to the church, or are you running away from life outside?

It was easy for Jana to say. She had a life outside her convent. She had someone who loved her. Someone she could make a life with.

Kurt didn't. It felt that way, so often, with Blaine. But it wasn't real. When Kurt’s mission was over, he would go home, and Blaine would—well, maybe Blaine wouldn't forget him, but Blaine would love his next companion just as much. Blaine would keep on loving his companions and being patient with them and being kind to them, a perfect practice for loving the wife he would eventually be sealed to.

And sure. Maybe Kurt could find someone else. Someone gay who thought Kurt was smart and funny and kind and noble. Someone who found him attractive, who wanted to do more than just hold hands and hug in a brotherly fashion.

But Kurt didn’t want ‘someone.’ He wanted Blaine.

Kurt couldn't leave the church behind for a person who might exist, somewhere, maybe. He could leave it for Blaine. In a heartbeat, he would leave it for Blaine. Unlike what apparently existed in Catholicism, there was no room in Mormonism for that kind of love. You couldn't stay in the church as an unrepentant sinner. You had to make a choice between the language of your birth and the language of your heart.

But without Blaine? The church was the only language left that Kurt spoke fluently.

Are you running toward life in service to the church, or are you running away from life outside?

Kurt broke the silence again a kilometer or two into their walk, as they crossed the Danube. The usually green waters looked gray in the dwindling light. “You knew they were lesbians when they invited us,” he said.

It wasn’t a question, so Blaine didn’t answer. He sensed this was the beginning of a fight, and he wanted to delay the inevitable.

“You knew there wouldn't be any men in the house, but you accepted their invitation instead of sending the sisters over in our place.” Kurt’s voice was steady and deceptively curious, like that detective from the syndicated 1970s show who always pretended not to know anything even when he'd already cracked the case.

“They didn't invite the sisters,” Blaine said. “They invited us.”

“But why did you accept? You know we're not supposed to be alone with women. And given how moved you were by their love story, I hardly think you wanted to proselytize them. You do realize if they want to get baptized, they’d have to break up and stop living together, don't you?”

“You know why I accepted their invitation, Kurt.” They were in a park now, trees and grass all around them, the fluttering of the Danube echoing over their steps. The sun was gone. No one else was around.

“Because you were wrong, Blaine," Kurt continued as if Blaine had said nothing at all. "There is no same-sex marriage in the church. You can nitpick the language of the covenants all you want, but you know what they mean.”

Blaine gritted his teeth. “I was not wrong. It’s your business if that's the way you want to hear it, but that doesn’t make you right. Have you ever stopped to think that God inspired the phrasing used in the temple? Because the temple is scripture. The things the apostles say, the things the prophets say—unless they’re in Doctrine and Covenants, they’re not. And the Family Proclamation isn’t scripture, either. There’s truth in there—spouses should love each other, parents should love their children—but it’s not the truth. So if God doesn’t condemn same-sex marriage in the temple, maybe it means something.”

Kurt growled. He actually growled. “I can’t. I can’t with you.”

“Kurt. I’m not trying to make you angry. These are the things I truly believe, in my heart.”

“Are they? Are they really? Or are you trying to make me feel better because you can’t stand the fact that anyone around you might have been dealt a crappy hand when you got a terrific one? Because you don’t want the guilt of your own happiness?”

“Kurt. Don’t.”

Kurt turned to face Blaine. “No. It’s worse than that, isn’t it? It’s not for you. You do it for me. Because you care about me.” He said it like an insult, like it was a crime. Like love was an offense that needed to be punished.

“Yes, Kurt,” Blaine answered calmly. At least, his voice was calm. Inside, he was anything but. He was a deer hounded by wolves. He was an army of bees preparing to defend its hive. He was a mother bird whose eggs had slipped from the nest. “Because I care about you.”

Kurt’s skin was gray in the moonlight, but his teeth were white. “I don't want you to care!” He jabbed an index finger in Blaine's chest. “It's not your job, Blaine. Stop caring.”

“I can’t, Kurt.” Blaine felt tears pressing against his eye sockets, his forehead. It wasn't the time to say it, but he didn't know what else to say. “I can't, Kurt, because I love you. I do, and I can’t—”

“Love is overrated!” Kurt spun on his heels and began walking again, too fast for Blaine to keep up without jogging.

“Kurt, Kurt—” Blaine didn't know what to say. He wanted to finish his sentence, the one Kurt had interrupted, the one that was supposed to end and I can't stand this anymore, I can't stand the idea of you being alone for the rest of your life because I want to be in it, because I want to spend it loving you, in every way you want, kissing you and holding you and building a life together and making love to you and so many things, so many things I never imagined I would ever feel about anyone, if only you’ll have me. But Kurt was moving so fast, and he was so angry, and Kurt’s anger always made it harder for Blaine to say what he meant, made Blaine’s tongue tie up in knots that he didn't know how to undo.

“Love is overrated!” Kurt repeated, and then, in an exasperated stream, “They were nice ladies. There was nothing wrong with them. But you can't fix me with them, Blaine. You can't fix my life.”

Blaine put his hand on Kurt’s arm. It was a dangerous move, but Kurt had to slow down. Blaine wasn't wearing running shoes.

To Blaine’s surprise, Kurt didn't shake his hand away. He did, however, emit a very snappy, “What?”

Slow down, Kurt, Blaine meant to say. But what came out of his mouth was, “Love one another. You said it yourself, Kurt. It's the most important thing. Love one another.”

Kurt stopped in his tracks. His breathing changed. “But it's not enough, Blaine! Can't you see it's not enough?” The words started out sharply. But they weakened at the end, as if the wind had just been knocked out of Kurt. He covered his face with one hand and turned away from Blaine. He sniffled.

“Why isn't it enough?” Blaine asked.

“Because, because—” Kurt sobbed. “Because sometimes I feel like Heavenly Father doesn't care about love at all. That the Plan of Salvation is about something else. And I just can't figure out what, what it's for. And I want love to be enough, I do. But then there's all these other things, and these rules, and I get so scared, and I want to see Finn after I die, and what if we aren't in the same level of heaven, the church is supposed to bring families together, but I worry all the time that I’ll never see him again, and the gospel is supposed to be simple but it drives me up the wall, Blaine. I can never be good enough, there is no grace, there is no room for people like Liesl and Jana to live their lives and come to church when they want to and not get excommunicated for goodness sake. And maybe that's a good thing, because maybe if I get excommunicated I'll end up in the Telestial Kingdom and I will see Finn again, except then I won't see my dad or my mom and, and— I just want to love, Blaine. I want to love and be loved and be with the people I love. Is that so wrong?”

Kurt had been talking nonstop, barely a breath between phrases, gesticulating wildly with every utterance, as if he needed the help of his hands to pull the words out of his body and fling them to the stars. But now he went still. He went still, and looked at Blaine, and his voice softened. “Is that so wrong?” he repeated.

“No, Kurt. It’s right. It will always be right.”

Kurt collapsed into Blaine, his arms around Blaine’s shoulders and his face pressed into his neck, burning hot like the sun and sopping wet like the Danube. “I’m sorry, Blaine. You did nothing wrong. I’m so sorry.”

“I know,” Blaine said. He wrapped an arm around Kurt’s back—propping him up, trying to give him strength he needed. He raised the other arm and curled his hand around Kurt’s head, holding him close, praying that his love could be enough, at least for this moment. “I know, Kurt.” He buried his nose into Kurt’s hair and kissed him—not because he thought Kurt would feel it, or that if he felt it, he would understand what it meant. But because Blaine had to. “I want it to be enough, too.”

#klainevalentines2023 #klaine fanfiction #klaine fic #wowbright writes fic #mormon!klaine #i actually teared up writing this one but ymmv #kurt stop it

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em-writes-stuff-sometimes · 1 year

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What if reader was a Dreamer like Helaena? Like she see the song of ice and fire and the dance of the dragon, not everything but small glimpses of each dream. Would daemon believe her or think she’s crazy.

Ooh, you know - I did consider this, but I ultimately decided to prioritise another narrative choice that makes the two really similar (yet to come).

My original intentions were to have the dreams ‘resurface’ (from childhood nightmares) after the marriage, with Daemon being a little short with her about the whole thing. He wouldn’t believe her - but one day, maybe a year into the marriage, she dreams a series of vignettes wherein Otto pays off someone to spike her wine with moon tea or something, which explains why she’s not pregnant. Daemon would verify that this is actually true, go “how the fuck would you know that?!” and ultimately be forced to confront the possibility that his wife does indeed receive prophetic dreams. Further little dreams that come true would cement this.

I ultimately disposed of it for a number of reasons: one, Daemon would DEFINITELY kill Otto if the guy was essentially drugging his wife without her knowledge, preventing her from having a child; two, it’d create too many similarities with Helaena with what I have planned coming up; three, it’d take the narrative down a path I’m not yet confident enough in my capacity as a writer to fulfil; and four, I found the notion that a delayed conception had to be because of foul play a bit contrived. It’s been done before, and sometimes people just don’t fall pregnant that quickly.

But yeah, Daemon would be annoyed by it; he’s not a fan of the whole “signs and portents” shtick that his bro uses to justify his reign, but he’d ultimately come around over time. This is a really interesting plot point, though, and I’d love to see someone explore that in a Daemon x Reader!

#fanfiction asks

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luckyspacerabbit · 2 years

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Vignette #1: The Destiny of A Spectre

The first in a series of vignettes about my Shepard, Dan Hyun.

As Dan Hyun hunches over the Presidium’s lakeside railing, all she wants to do is bask in the bright sky. Its rays are no more than stored electrons, generated from a series of solar batteries that expel, reabsorb, and recharge them for continual use. It’s ancient, falsified sunlight. It does not warm her skin.

But it distracts her from the last few days, whose hours have been all but tarnished in darkness.

“Commander…” Kaidan’s sympathetic voice was lost to the pulsating in Dan Hyun’s ears.

Her thickened combat gloves were pinching the recently roughened skin of her cheeks, vision limited to the twisted blue canal by her fingers.

“Did you hear what the Councillor said?” she hoarsely whispers. “I’m a Spectre, now. Humanity’s hero.”

Dan Hyun’s fingers bundle tighter around her face, twisting into the bun of hair that has begun to fall apart.

“I feel so… I mean…” her hands dig into her scalp, her own wavering voice distracting from the blood gushing through her temples. “Is this what it’s all been for, Kaidan?” she whispers. “What I ran away from Trident for?” The blood of her lip is tangy. “Maybe Akuze was bigger than me. Maybe it’s all….”

She can’t bite back her yelp fast enough, eyes squeezing shut as a vision pierces the sanctuary of her panic.

Flesh, pulled apart by machine. A planet, drowning in darkness.

The world is ringing by the time her red vision can be soothed by blue presidium skies.

A hand grips the plate on her shoulder but her armor is a protective wall barring Kaidan out. Nothing could be felt beneath the endless layers of metal and weave.

“Hey, stay with me, okay?” his worried browns pass over each part of her face. If Dan Hyun knew her LT, he’d be seeking out any sign that he should hoist her up and make a break for the nearest clinic.

“Sorry,” she mutters. “Just the beacon’s visions, again.” A thin laugh leaves her at that. “‘Visions.’ I’m starting to feel like this is all so… prophetic.”

Kaidan doesn’t reply to her uncertain comment right away. It takes Dan Hyun a small examination to read him: his eye bags, heavier than usual, typically bright browns ringed hard by yesterday’s battle, turned to the crowds below.

She taps her fingers along the rail, nervous.

“What is it?”

Kaidan doesn’t look up from the crowds. “To be honest with you Shepard… prophetic scares me a little.”

“Scares you?” Dan Hyun echoes, quiet. “What if I call it destiny?”

Kaidan shifts away, worried expression cracking into an uncomfortable smile.

“Not destiny, no. Destiny’s…” he chuckles, darker than she’s heard. Defiance flickers in his squint, crusting the edges of his eyes. “Destiny’s worse. And it better not apply here.”

“What if it did?”

“Bad ‘what if,’ Shepard.”

“Would it be so bad?” she laughs, though it sounds nervous. “At least then we’d know that the choices we make are the right ones. That the Normandy was the only ship that could have been on Eden Prime.”

She looks down at the crowds, the skylights she had coveted feeling suddenly too bright.

“That the Council chose the right human to be Spectre.”

Kaidan frowns. “I don’t know that destiny would solve that. Think about it for a second. Destiny could send you down a bad path or a good path, doesn’t matter that you fit in its plans. All it really does is take away our power to make a difference.”

“Doesn’t feel like we have any agency right now anyway,” she mumbles. “What would it matter?”

“It matters because we do.” He runs his fingers through his curls, brows pressed low. “You protected me from that beacon, persuaded the Council that Saren was a threat, and saved a Quarian from Saren’s assassins? What would have happened if you hadn’t been at that meeting, to put your foot down and say ‘We need to stop him?’”

Kaidan’s boots pound the metal ground while he paces, an increasingly fast, drumming rhythm. The sound encroaches on the mechanical whispering in her ears, her vision growing starry.

“Honestly, Shepard, with all due respect do you even hear yourself? If this is all a part of some… plan… what does that mean for people like Jenkins? Or Chief Williams? Her squad? Are you okay with saying they’re just acceptable collateral in all this?”

His voice is swelling now, rising on the tide of the beacon’s horrible, inhuman screeches. Every word from him is lesser, enveloped by long dead voices.

It’s so loud. Her tiny voice cries. It’s so, so loud–

“...Commander?”

“Of course not!” she snaps.

The murmuring is gone. Frightened away by the rawness of her voice, it slinked into the recesses of her mind. It had not yet heard her fury since taking residence on the edges of her consciousness.

The silence it leaves is almost as disorienting as the noise. On a trembling tongue, she speaks.

“I’m not saying that, I just…”

Her voice falls away, hesitant to voice such a terrifying truth, even against the sickening quiet.

She swallows.

“You’re right, again.” Dan Hyun’s tones run low, lashes following. “I took an oath when I became N7 and I’m not going to fail the Alliance, not after all they’ve done for me.” Her gloved hands squeak on the railing’s edge.

“There are innocent people. Victims. They need to be protected. Who knows if they’re going to be as lucky as us.” A sigh ghosts her lips. “Or unlucky.”

The rail connecting them shudders under her Lieutenant’s grip. With his eyes squeezed shut, Kaidan looks just as desperate for answers as she is.

“I don’t know. Maybe we are the damn unluckiest humans in the Milky Way. Or maybe we’re the luckiest. What I do know is our fight against Saren is going to matter. Our choices have to matter.”

Her stare absorbs each disruption on her LT’s face— the excess stubble, flecked with white hair from stress, the scabbed over nick from where her armor cut his chin on the way back to the Normandy.

The desperation in his parted lips. The hope in his cool browns asks her not to let him down.

Stimuli from the smallest of his expressions pour into her dilating eyes.

“Then we’ll do it. And we’ll make it count,” she whispers. It’s hard to see past the wetness forming along her lash line, but still, she blinks, allowing the tears to fly away.

“Destiny or choice… lucky or unlucky. We’re the only ones who can rise to the occasion now.”

#my writing #dan hyun shepard #commander shepard #kaidan alenko #fanfic #writing

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bubblesandgutz · 11 months

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Every Record I Own - Day 773: Lungfish The Unanimous Hour

My first exposure to The Unanimous Hour was on a European tour back in 2005. Our booking agent and I got to talking about music during some downtime in London and by the end of the conversation he had shoved CD copies of King Crimson's Red and Lungfish's The Unanimous Hour into my hands, incredulous that I hadn't heard either. Red made enough sense to me that I picked up the LP upon returning to the States. But The Unanimous Hour didn't win me over, and a decade would pass before I heard it again.

Once again I was in Europe. We had a day off to pull a long drive from Poland to Lithuania. It was late autumn and the sun set early, so most of the drive was in the dark. By this point I was getting pretty heavily into Lungfish but there were still a few albums I hadn't spent time with. I remember downloading The Unanimous Hour onto my phone and listening to it on that long, dark drive on my headphones. As I mentioned earlier, I've found that Lungfish doesn't translate well as driving music, and once again, the album passed without making much of an impression on me.

Still, I couldn't pass on a cheap vinyl copy The Unanimous Hour when I found it in the wild a few months later. Honestly, it's been the least played LP of theirs in my collection, and I wasn't entirely sure what I'd have to say about it when it came into the Tumblr queue. But I've been listening to The Unanimous Hour a lot over the last few days and I've finally had my magic-eye moment with it.

Even at the outset of all these Lungfish posts, I tended to lump The Unanimous Hour in with the last era of the band. The first era was when Lungfish felt like the more cryptic twin to Fugazi. The second era---from Sound In Time through the end of the '90s---was when they found their footing in repetition and metaphysical lyrics and began to deconstruct their approach to songwriting. The final era, to my ears, found the band zeroing in on a very rudimentary, foundational approach to punk. Higgs becomes both more menacing and more prophetic. The songs generally become a little more muscular, though in contrast to their earlier work, the quieter and more reserved songs tend to become the highlights.

I love the entire Lungfish catalog, but my favorite records are in that second era, and The Unanimous Hour, with it's clamorous and sneering album opener "Space Orgy," felt like the transition away from the more meditative and spatial records in their catalog. I'm not sure why I initially felt the album was a move away from their past work. The next two songs tap into familiar territories: "Web of Mirrors" is an instrumental vignetter not unlike some of my favorite tracks off Artificial Horizon and "Searchlight" is an authoritative exercise in muscular minor key minimalism similar to the general vibe of Sound In Time. And things start to get a lot weirder from there.

"Vulgar Theories" is primitive even by Lungfish standards---just one fuzzy chord banged out in quarter notes for the verses while Higgs does his usual Higgs-isms. The chorus is the same chord, the same timing, the same tempo, just a little louder and with one extra chord thrown in every fourth measure. Repeat for four minutes. But somewhere around the third or fourth cycle of the loud-louder verse/chorus structure, the band throws in a third chord, and it feels like the most triumphant thing ever. A Lungfish song with an apex? Who would've thought?

The album continues to wield some of Lungfish's weirdest and wildest material---the sublime lullaby-like "God's Will," the one-chord drone and octave-shifted vocals of "Metatron," the noise-swaddled instrumental "Return to the Caves," the transcendent tape manipulation of "Hallucinatorium"---all of it distinctly Lungfish, while also demonstrating a continuing exploration of possibility.

In many ways, I feel a little embarrassed that it's taken me 18 years to decipher the album's charms. After all, it's not as if Lungfish's music is complicated or complex. Quite the opposite. It's rudimentary to the point of being a bit puzzling. Like... that's it? That's all you've got? But once you realize that the individual songs have no grand trajectory and instead seem to be obsessive studies of a single simple principle, a magic begins to emerge from the material.

Maybe that's why Pitchfork was generally unkind to Lungfish, except when it came to reviewing their reissues. You can't expect a critic to grant a Lungfish album a cursory listen and walk away from it with a full understanding of its power. It takes time to understand the songs, even if it sounds like very little time was spent putting the songs together. In this case, it took me nearly 18 years to truly appreciate to appreciate their eighth album, but it was well worth the wait.

#everyrecordiown #lungfish

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prophetic-hijinks · 7 months

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feliz cumpleaños

Master comic list

star from the beginning

one shots

The twins were born today, September 16th. Colombia’s St.Valentines day.

#encanto #ramiro madrigal #elena ruiz #encanto oc #Alma madrigal #birthday #prophetic hijinks #Elena madrigal #prophetic vignettes

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phillipmedhurst · 2 years

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23/66 Headpiece to Isaiah by Harry Brockway

23/66 Headpiece to Isaiah by Harry Brockway Wood engraving by Harry Brockway (British b. 1958) in The Reader’s Digest Bible (illustrated edition) 1990

View On WordPress

#Bible #Bible illustration #Book of Isaiah #Harry Brockway #headpiece #Isaiah #millennium #new age #Phillip Medhurst #prophecy #prophet #Readers Digest #vignette #wood engraving

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writingwolverina · 1 year

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DECLARATION OF INTENT

Working title is Time Lost but it'll definitely change.

This started as one of my short stories from the Creed of Gethin (and the character will still feature in a less involved vignette) but now it's spun out of control into a full blown novel.

Set in the Wild West of Bladland, 200 years after the events of The Unwanted Prophet, Time lost will feature the first Prophet of Death since Quincy - it will follow this prophet on a darker, more horrific adventure with the usual godly shenanigans.

I'm really excited to have a solid concept that I'm interested in writing after this trilogy, especially something more geared towards horror. Inspirations are Midnight Mass, the Endless and Apostle.

#am writing #time lost #idea zone

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oldschoolfic-ds9 · 1 year

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Nothing Else Matters

by OMonteith, unknown year

A post "Tears of the Prophets" vignette .

Words: 949, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Rating: R

Warnings: none listed

Characters: Julian Bashir, Elim Garak, Jadzia Dax, Worf

Relationships: Garak/Bashir

Reader suggested tags (what are these?): none

links (link broken? report it and try the archive.org alternative):

tripod

archive.org - option 1

#jbashir #egarak #garakbashirfic #unknownyear #2korless #no known warnings #jdax #worffic #ratedrm

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imaminoccultation · 1 year

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Letter 7: The Word and Spirit of God, Part I - Praise be to Muslim Jesus

Peace be upon those who follow the right path. Which is to say, hey besties! I dunno if my Book of the Son of Mary clued you in or not, but, you know, I’m a huge fan of Prophet Jesus Christ. Can you blame me? I belong to 1 of the only 2 major world religions that recognize Jesus as a Prophet and Messiah: and the other one is Christianity.

Now, I know every Muslim has to respect Jesus, I mean, he’s easily one of the most important prophets in Islam. Growing up, cousins would regale me with stories of the Islamic apocalypse, the triumphant return of Prophet Jesus Christ, and his epic face off with the al-Maseeh ad-Dajjaal AKA The Blind Antichrist. Plus, if you’ve read the Uthmanic Bible or recite the Recitation, like I do, then you know Jesus is talked about like…all the time. There really are no in-depth retellings of Jesus stories the way there are for prophets like Yousif, Musa, or Maryam, but the vignettes about Prophet Jesus found in the Recitation were more than enough to make my imagination run as a kid who grew up in a masjid. First of all, there’s the story of his birth found in the Song of Mary, recorded in the 19th chapter of the Uthmanic Bible, which has always been one of my favorite Recitation stories. Every Ramadan, when my parents would force me and my siblings into going through the whole Uthmanic Bible, I was always excited to get to the Song of Mary. I mean, shit, I’m pretty sure 90% of the reason I’m still avoiding the Gospel of Luke is because I know the nativity story in there is nothing like the birth of Jesus story I grew up with and I’m very satisfied with the one I know, hehe.

But of course, this isn’t Prophet Jesus’ only appearance in the Recitation. He gets a lot of screentime in the Song of the House of ‘Imran, recorded in the third chapter of the Uthmanic Bible. In that Song, his adult life is given much more attention, as we’re told he raises peeps from the dead, heals the sick, cures the blind, while preaching tawheed to his people, the Sons of Israel. Also, we shouldn’t forget the ending of the Song of the Tablespread, one of my favorite parts of the Recitation. The Song of the Tablespread is such an intimidating chapter of the Uthmanic Bible: it’s so long, the verses are so long, and a lot of seriously fucked up shit goes down in the Song of the Tablespread (aside from the outlining of Muslim dietary restrictions). That’s not to say it isn’t great in its own way, but for me, the part I’ve always loved most is the ending. It’s a dialogue between Prophet Jesus and God, and it sorta goes like:

يَوْمَ يَجْمَعُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلرُّسُلَ فَيَقُولُ مَاذَآ أُجِبْتُمْ ۖ قَالُوا۟ لَا عِلْمَ لَنَآ ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّـٰمُ ٱلْغُيُوبِ

One day, God will gather all the Messengers to ask them: “how did the people respond to you?” They’ll say: “we don’t know: you are the one who has knowledge of the unseen.”

إِذْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَـٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ ٱذْكُرْ نِعْمَتِى عَلَيْكَ وَعَلَىٰ وَٰلِدَتِكَ إِذْ أَيَّدتُّكَ بِرُوحِ ٱلْقُدُسِ تُكَلِّمُ ٱلنَّاسَ فِى ٱلْمَهْدِ وَكَهْلًۭا ۖ وَإِذْ عَلَّمْتُكَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَٱلتَّوْرَىٰةَ وَٱلْإِنجِيلَ ۖ وَإِذْ تَخْلُقُ مِنَ ٱلطِّينِ كَهَيْـَٔةِ ٱلطَّيْرِ بِإِذْنِى فَتَنفُخُ فِيهَا فَتَكُونُ طَيْرًۢا بِإِذْنِى ۖ وَتُبْرِئُ ٱلْأَكْمَهَ وَٱلْأَبْرَصَ بِإِذْنِى ۖ وَإِذْ تُخْرِجُ ٱلْمَوْتَىٰ بِإِذْنِى ۖ وَإِذْ كَفَفْتُ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ عَنكَ إِذْ جِئْتَهُم بِٱلْبَيِّنَـٰتِ فَقَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِنْهُمْ إِنْ هَـٰذَآ إِلَّا سِحْرٌۭ مُّبِينٌۭ

On that day, God will say: “Hey, Jesus, son of Mary: remember how much I’ve blessed you and your mother. I supported you with the Holy Spirit so you could preach to the people both as a child in the crib and now in maturity. I taught you the Record and the Wisdom, taught you the Tawrat, taught you the gospel. You take clay and mold it into the shape of a bird, and by my permission, it comes to life when you blow into it. You cure the blind and the lepers by my permission, and you raise the dead with my permission. I shielded you from the sons of Israel when you came to them with clear Signs and the disbelievers among them said: ‘this is clearly just magic and sorcery.’

وَإِذْ أَوْحَيْتُ إِلَى ٱلْحَوَارِيِّـۧنَ أَنْ ءَامِنُوا۟ بِى وَبِرَسُولِى قَالُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا وَٱشْهَدْ بِأَنَّنَا مُسْلِمُونَ

“I inspired the disciples to have faith in me and my messengers. They said: ‘we have faith, and we swear we are submitters to God – Muslims.’”

إِذْ قَالَ ٱلْحَوَارِيُّونَ يَـٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ هَلْ يَسْتَطِيعُ رَبُّكَ أَن يُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْنَا مَآئِدَةًۭ مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ ۖ قَالَ ٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ

Remember when the disciples said: “hey Jesus, son of Mary! Does your Lord have the power to send us down a table spread with food from the sky?” Jesus said: “fear God, if you truly are Believers.”

قَالُوا۟ نُرِيدُ أَن نَّأْكُلَ مِنْهَا وَتَطْمَئِنَّ قُلُوبُنَا وَنَعْلَمَ أَن قَدْ صَدَقْتَنَا وَنَكُونَ عَلَيْهَا مِنَ ٱلشَّـٰهِدِينَ

They told him: “we just want to eat from that tablespread. It’ll put our doubts to rest, and we’ll be sure that you are indeed truthful, and we can be witnesses to this miracle.”

قَالَ عِيسَى ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ ٱللَّهُمَّ رَبَّنَآ أَنزِلْ عَلَيْنَا مَآئِدَةًۭ مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ تَكُونُ لَنَا عِيدًۭا لِّأَوَّلِنَا وَءَاخِرِنَا وَءَايَةًۭ مِّنكَ ۖ وَٱرْزُقْنَا وَأَنتَ خَيْرُ ٱلرَّٰزِقِينَ

Jesus, the son of Mary, said: “Lord God, bring us down a tablespread from the sky; a festival for the first of us and the last of us, and a Sign from you. Provide for us, you are truly the best of providers.”

قَالَ ٱللَّهُ إِنِّى مُنَزِّلُهَا عَلَيْكُمْ ۖ فَمَن يَكْفُرْ بَعْدُ مِنكُمْ فَإِنِّىٓ أُعَذِّبُهُۥ عَذَابًۭا لَّآ أُعَذِّبُهُۥٓ أَحَدًۭا مِّنَ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ

God said: “I will send it down to you; whoever disbelieves after this, though, will face a punishment from me that I’ve never inflicted upon any of my creations.”

وَإِذْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَـٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ ءَأَنتَ قُلْتَ لِلنَّاسِ ٱتَّخِذُونِى وَأُمِّىَ إِلَـٰهَيْنِ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ قَالَ سُبْحَـٰنَكَ مَا يَكُونُ لِىٓ أَنْ أَقُولَ مَا لَيْسَ لِى بِحَقٍّ ۚ إِن كُنتُ قُلْتُهُۥ فَقَدْ عَلِمْتَهُۥ ۚ تَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِى وَلَآ أَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِكَ ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّـٰمُ ٱلْغُيُوبِ

God will say: “Hey, Jesus, son of Mary! Did you ever tell people to worship you and your mom as gods alongside me?” He’ll respond: “Praise be to you! I would never say anything I had no right to say. If I did say it, you’d know it: you know what’s in my heart, while I am ignorant of what is in yours. Indeed, you alone know all the secrets of the unseen.

مَا قُلْتُ لَهُمْ إِلَّا مَآ أَمَرْتَنِى بِهِۦٓ أَنِ ٱعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ رَبِّى وَرَبَّكُمْ ۚ وَكُنتُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًۭا مَّا دُمْتُ فِيهِمْ ۖ فَلَمَّا تَ��َفَّيْتَنِى كُنتَ أَنتَ ٱلرَّقِيبَ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ وَأَنتَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ شَهِيدٌ

“I only ever told them what you ordered me to tell them: worship God, my Lord and your Lord. I watched over them for the time I was among them; but when you fulfilled me, caused me to die, you became their overseer, and you see all things.

إِن تُعَذِّبْهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ عِبَادُكَ ۖ وَإِن تَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ فَإِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ

"If you torment them, well, they’re your Slaves; but if you choose to forgive them, well, you’re the Most Powerful and Most Wise.”

قَالَ ٱللَّهُ هَـٰذَا يَوْمُ يَنفَعُ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ صِدْقُهُمْ ۚ لَهُمْ جَنَّـٰتٌۭ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيهَآ أَبَدًۭا ۚ رَّضِىَ ٱللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا۟ عَنْهُ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلْفَوْزُ ٱلْعَظِيمُ

God said: “Today is the day where the truthful will reap the benefits of their truthfulness. They will have gardens, underneath which rivers flow, and they’ll be immortal in them forever. God is pleased with them, just as they are with Him; that is the Great Triumph.”

لِلَّهِ مُلْكُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا فِيهِنَّ ۚ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ قَدِيرٌۢ

To God belongs the skies and the Earth and all that lies between them; he is capable of all things.

Prophet Jesus Christ, despite his miraculous birth, his sonship to the greatest Muslim woman to have ever lived (according to the Uthmanic Bible, anyway), his incredible miracles, remained humble, modest, and promoted tawheed, salaam (peace), and rahma (mercy). One day, we’ll have to talk about intercession in Islam, but I’ll share this right now: just as I make du’a for the intercession of the Prophet Muhammad, the People of the House, and the Imams, I make du’a for the intercession of Prophet Jesus Christ. I mean, you know, it’s very clear that he has a close relationship with God, so why not??

And if you think this is shirk, I beg you to read up on Sufism and Shi’ism, and also, you know, Islamic history, cause the Prophet Muhammad told people to make du’a for his intercession.

But anyways! I love Prophet Jesus Christ. I even have a book on the Muslim Jesus by Tarif Khalidi, which compiles hadith attributed specifically to Prophet Jesus: some are readaptations of gospel stories, some are totally original and tell us a lot about how medieval Muslims understood the role of Prophet Jesus in their religion.

I would love to talk about all this…but, it’ll have to wait for another day. Why?

Ah, Answering Islam. It takes me back! Feels like one of the original anti-Muslim polemics sites, but, you know, when you’re a diaspora kid looking for answers to questions on Islam, what other good options do you have? Nice to see the site’s layout hasn’t budged an inch since I was young, shit still looks like it was made in an HTML 101 class, but I mean, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

If you’re not particularly interested in reading bad faith arguments against Islam, here’s a summary of the article above: this nigga tries to argue that the Recitation accidentally deifies Prophet Jesus Christ. To prove this, they argue that, if you go through the Recitation and some lesser known hadith, you can come to the conclusion that Prophet Jesus Christ is the pre-existent Word of God or logos, involved in the creation of the universe, just as he is in Christianity. The article even cites a little-known Sunni hadith that claims Prophet Jesus existed as a Spirit in the time of Prophet Adam: you know, the first human. Our smug polemicist then poses the challenge: doesn’t this shit mean Jesus is basically the Son of God in Islam?

I’m frankly shocked by the amount of confidence these anti-Muslim polemicists have in their arguments despite the fact that they demonstrate a complete and utter ignorance of how Islam (and books, for that matter) actually…work? Let’s get this out of the way: if something depends on Allah to exist in any way, shape, or form, by the Islamic definition, that shit ain’t God. Even if it creates the universe, raises people from the dead, calls itself God, lives forever, if it wouldn’t’ve existed without God’s explicit permission, that shit ain’t God. Even if something predates the creation of the universe, that shit still ain’t God. That’s why the Light of Muhammad – the Muslim version of the logos, basically – isn’t worshipped by the Muslims who believe in the concept. It’s God’s most perfect and most exalted creation, and through its intermediation he generates, manages, and sustains our reality, but it also is totally dependent on God for its existence. A term like "Son" implies that it somehow shares in the essence or resembles its father: but, if you remember the primer on tawheed, then you'd know why we reject that. Even if a Muslim believes in Jesus as the eternal, pre-existent Word/logos of Allah (similar to Shi'a beliefs about Muhammad and Ali), the very essence of tawheed is to understand that this can, at best, prove the glory of Allah's Oneness. It can never detract from it.

And this brings me to what I really want to talk about today: The Muslim Jesus dilemma.

There’s an extremely long history of Christians accusing Muslims of hating Jesus: too long to get into in a fucking Tumblr post, I’ll tell ya that. As a Muslim-American, though, I feel like lots of Muslim-Americans have this instinct to:

Defend the Muslim relationship with Jesus because, you know, anybody who knows shit about Islam will tell you Prophet Jesus is important to Muslims.

Emphasize Jesus’ humanity and subordination to God as a response to the Christian deification of Jesus.

And so I feel like you get a lot of Muslim-Americans (or Americans writing about Islam) talking about how much Muslims love Jesus and how important he is, and at the same time I feel like the entire way of discussing Jesus in Muslim-America is very…well…paradoxical. It’s all about responding to Christian arguments: make sure Jesus is Muslim enough to be claimed by us, but not godly enough to be what the Christians think he is. There’re probably good reasons for this, but I’m fucking sick of it. Prophet Jesus Christ as described in Islam is not simply some argument against the Christians. He’s his own full-ass person, a unique character that embodies a unique religious philosophy that is worth appreciating.

And we’ll be diving into it for sure, besties. But before then, I’d like to encourage my Muslim readers to take a little exercise: read the Gospel of Mark. Seriously. I went my whole life being told reading the Gospel of Mark was either 1) useless 2) a highway to hell 3) pointless when the Recitation is right there, and I’m frankly convinced you can only come to these conclusions as a Muslim if you’ve never actually read the Gospel of Mark. It’s not historically accurate or 100% compatible with the Muslim narrative of Jesus, but in the Gospel of Mark, Prophet Jesus Christ is depicted as the miracle-working Messiah of God, a teacher, a healer, and promoter of charity and tawheed. As an atheist, reading it, I was expecting to have my assumptions about Jesus that I learned as a Muslim flipped upside down, but seriously, read the Gospel of Mark. That nigga definitely a Muslim prophet, he sounds like the rest of them, deadass.

#islam #jesus christ #shia islam #muslim #religion #christianity #america

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diirrunesigv · 2 years

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Diablo 3 season 26 end date and Sason 27 release date

Diablo 3 Season 26 started April 15, introducing a new endgame activity for the season’s theme — the Echoing Nightmare — that will persist following the end of Season 26. And while I’m thrilled these incredibly fun free-for-alls (ending in an utter deluge of demonic hordes that blows you up) are sticking around, we know that seasons sadly do not last forever. Thus, we turn to the eternal question — when does Season 26 end?

When does Diablo 3 Season 27 start?

Diablo 3 Season 27 will begin on Friday, August 26, 2022, bringing with it Angelic Crucibles and Sanctified Powers/Items.Diablo Season 26 Start and End Dates

Patch 2.7.3 will arrive on Non-Seasonal servers on April 12th, and Season 26 will start on April 15th, 2022 at 5PM (PDT/CEST/KST).

Season 26 ended on August 21, 2022 at 5PM (PDT/CEST/KST). To see what the following season, Season 27, contains, visit its seasonal hub below.

Diablo 3 Season 26 Seasonal Conquests

Seasonal Conquests are achievements for players who enjoy striving to get as much personal glory and a good spot on the leaderboards in both softcore and hardcore modes.

Avarice and Avaritia task you with obtaining a notable gold streak, while Speed Demon and Need for Speed are all about completing challenging Nephalem Rifts quickly.

On a Good Day and I Can’t Stop focus on leveling Legendary Gems, Divinity and Lionhearted ask you to reach Greater Rift level 75 on your own, while Years of War and Dynasty revolve around different class sets.

Greater Rift Updates

We wanted to improve the Greater Rift experience through quality of life updates, balance changes and addressing community feedback. We reviewed all of the maps and monsters that appear in Greater Rifts and reworked the probabilities overall to make sure players spend more time with the content they enjoy. Less spaghetti and more chickens!

Orek's Dream: Greater Rifts have a small chance to roll as Orek's Dream. These dreamlike rifts have a curated list of maps and monster compositions.

3 maps have been added and 2 maps have been removed from the Greater Rift pool.

Added: Fields of Misery, Desolate Sands and Briarthorn Cemetery

Removed: Sewers of Caldeum, and Hidden Aqueducts

The probability of Greater Rift maps has been adjusted.

The probability of monster groups has been adjusted.

The following monsters have been adjusted to grant more progression and EXP within Greater Rifts.

Blazing Guardians

Smoldering Guardians

Frost Guardian

Noxious Guardian

Shock Guardian

Blood Clan Spearman

Dark Moon Clan Impaler

Moon Clan Impaler

Blood Clan Impaler

Ice Clan Impaler

Hell Witch

Vile Temptress

Players can speak to Orek to close an active Greater Rift. This option is only available when in a single player game.

Further increased the progression granted by some monsters in Greater Rifts.

Additionally, increased the progression granted by Fallen Shaman, Fallen Conjurer, Fallen Prophet and Fallen Firemage.

Updated visual effects upon entering an Orek's Dream.

Updated the Orek's Dream vignette to be more pronounced.

What are the Diablo 3 Season 26 seasonal cosmetic rewards?

With a new season comes new rewards. You'll get Rakkis' Remembrance Portrait and a Toothsome Trooper pet for progressing through the Diablo 3 Season 26.

This time around, Season 14 rewards are returning. So if you missed the boots and pants from the Conqueror set or the Tal Rasha portrait frames, now's your chance to get them. You can even unlock a pennant dedicated to the fan-favourite archangel.

Season 27 Theme

In Season 27, Light’s Calling, valiant Nephalem can recover Angelic Crucibles, a new season-exclusive consumable item, that can be used to Sanctify equippable Legendary items.

By Sanctifying an Diablo 2 Resurrected Items , players infuse it with one of three new, random class-specific powers, such as the Wizard’s spellbinding Magic Missiles shown above. Angelic Crucibles will allow you to lean into the strengths of each class and highlight what makes each of them shine. A full list of potentially receivable class powers can be seen in our blog. Which power will your Sanctified items bring you?

Learn more about the rotating Season Conquest, updates to Haedrig's Gift, item changes and more at safe online store IGV.com , you can Buy D2R Runes from us

#Diablo 2 Resurrected Items #Buy D2R Runes #diablo 2 resurrected items

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wowbright · 1 year

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Fic: Prodding

Klaine Advent 2022: recast

Words: ~ 3000 words

Rating: Teen and Up

Summary: Kurt gets surprising news from Mercedes.

I’m back with more vignettes from my Mormon!Klaine universe for Klaine Advent 2022! This vignette takes after Philosophies of Men.

My Mormon!Klaine Masterpost.

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“No!” Kurt shrieked from the kitchen at such an ear-splitting volume, Blaine almost cut himself with the razor. “This is not happening!”

Blaine went into emergency management mode. His heart pounded, but he made himself take deep, steady breaths. If Kurt had hurt himself, it wouldn't help to have both of them panicking.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Blaine asked as he rushed into the kitchen. Kurt sat at the table, staring at the letter from Mercedes. Ah, not a physical wound then, but an emotional one. That might be even worse.

Kurt looked up at Blaine, his cheeks flushing a ruddy pink. “Sorry. I didn't mean to say that out loud.”

Blaine sat next to him. “It's OK. Is it something you want to talk about?”

“You still have shaving cream …” Kurt pointed vaguely to Blaine’s neck.

“That's OK. I was almost done. If it's uneven, I can touch it up later.” Blaine grabbed the face towel that was draped over his shoulder and dabbed at his skin. “Presentable?”

“I'm not the right person to ask, Blaine. I always think you're presentable.”

Blaine felt the edges of his ears go hot. This felt like flirting. Was this flirting? No, of course not. Kurt was in the middle of having strong emotions. That's why Blaine was here. “Um, so I'm guessing Mercedes said something that upset you?”

Kurt set the letter down and buried his face in his hands. “It shouldn't. I don't know why it does.”

Blaine tried to think of situations in which that phrase could apply. He wondered if Mercedes was having a once-in-a-lifetime event—a wedding, a Broadway premiere—that Kurt couldn't be there for because he was here in Germany. Kurt would deny himself the right to feel sad about it, because missionaries were supposed to be happy to make sacrifices. “So, good for Mercedes, but bad for you?”

“No.” Kurt muttered through his fingers. “Good for me, and bad for Mercedes.”

Blaine drew a blank. "How so?"

“It’s … I swear, if I had any other mission companion than you, I wouldn't be able to share my disappointment with this. And maybe you won't get it, but ... I'll give it a shot.” Kurt had uncovered his face by now, but was looking away from Blaine, his gaze set on the kitchen window. His voice was full of foreboding. “She's meeting with the missionaries.”

Blaine didn't understand the sentence at first, it was so far removed from any of the terrible-type news he might have expected. He had to play it over in his head a couple of times before he processed it. “Wait. That's good, isn't it?”

“She's black, Blaine.”

“Right.” Blaine still wasn’t following.

“You're the one who woke me up to the church's problems with racism. How can I, in good conscience, support her investigating a church that sees her as less?”

Oh. Blaine knew the things he had told Kurt about Brigham Young had shaken him, but he hadn't realized how much. For Blaine, the racism of the second prophet of the restoration was disturbing, but it was part of a larger picture. Because Blaine didn't have blind faith in the leadership, even their worst actions couldn't harm his faith in the goodness of the church or its ability to bring people closer to the truth.

Blaine suddenly understood that, for someone like Kurt, who had spent his whole life thinking Brigham Young was as perfect as Joseph Smith or Jesus Christ, learning he wasn’t would make him question all his beliefs.

It was like those looms Kurt had shown him at the Deutsches Museum. There were ones that made fabric by weaving many different strands together, and others that did so by knitting a single strand into a sweater or an enormous piece of cloth. Blaine’s faith was like woven fabric—if you pulled out a single thread, the worst that could happen was a small gap in the fabric. And this wasn’t always a bad thing—sometimes clothmakers did this intentionally, to create texture and beauty in an otherwise monotonous design.

But Kurt’s faith was like a knitted fabric—if you pulled too hard on a thread, the entire thing would eventually unravel. There was no upside.

Blaine have never meant to damage Kurt’s faith like that. He'd meant to enrich it.

“I'm sorry, Kurt. I didn't realize how much that affected you. But Brigham Young's been dead for more than a hundred and thirty years. He said and taught horrible things and, yes, a lot of our members believed them far after they should have known better. But that doesn't mean the church is inherently racist—just that it’s made mistakes. Our leaders have flaws. That’s why we have the guidance of the Holy Ghost—to confirm or disaffirm the things they’ve told us.”

Kurt looked skeptical. He broke a cookie into quarters, but didn't put any of the pieces into his mouth. “It’s not just Brigham Young. Black members were kept out of the temple until 1978. The temple, Blaine. The place we need to go to be with our families forever.”

“And that's awful. But I think of those leaders before 1978 the same way I think of Brigham Young. They were wrong. And the thing I hold onto is that they eventually came to understand they were wrong, and they repented. Do you know about Bruce R. McConkie? As an apostle, he taught that black people were spiritually inferior to everyone else on earth. But when the revelation came ending the priesthood ban, he said, ‘Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young … or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. … We have … a new flood of intelligence and light on this particular subject, and it erases all the darkness and all the views and all the thoughts of the past. They don’t matter anymore.’”

“But they do matter, Blaine. Because those policies hurt real people. And racism is still a problem in the church. All these pasty missionaries from the Mormon Corridor who want to pretend they can't see color, the fact that we can't sing gospel music in sacrament meeting because it’s too ‘ethnic’—”

“Yes. And that’s bad. Of course it’s bad. But it’s a problem everywhere, Kurt, inside the church and out of it.” Blaine spoke from experience. He'd been made to feel inferior for not being one-hundred percent white by some church members, but he'd also been made fun of for it at school and in playgrounds, too.

Kurt scoffed. “Not in Mercedes’ church! Everyone there is black. At least, almost everyone. The first time I went there with Mercedes, after I got over feeling out of place, I started noticing how comfortable she felt there. Just—safe, you know? In a way I hadn’t seen anywhere else. She wouldn't get that at one of our wards. She'd be surrounded by white people, just like she is everywhere else.”

Blaine was struck with a sense of longing. He wondered what it would be like, to be in a place like that. He often passed as white, but that still didn't mean he felt one-hundred percent safe in groups of white people. There was always the risk, even among the seemingly nicest folks, that someone would start making ethnic jokes or ranting about immigrants. And while he didn't have to worry about that as much when he visited the Philippines, there were so many cultural nuances he didn't understand, besides the fact that his Tagalog was terrible and his English was so obviously American-accented. It left him feeling like he did much of the time in his early days in Germany, on constant alert.

If a sense of belonging was so hard to come by, it couldn't be the only thing you considered in choosing a church. “Look. If she feels a pull toward the gospel, then she feels a pull toward the gospel. I've been a minority in every ward I’ve ever attended. But the church still works for me. What did she say in her letter about it, anyway?”

Kurt looked down at the letter and huffed. “Not much. Just ‘In Chicago for an entire month! Met a pair of female missionaries on the L train and have talked a couple times. They gave me a Book of Mormon—sorry, Kurt I didn't bring the one you gave me in high school on tour with me.’ Then she put in a smiley face. ‘It’s interesting. I like the story about the tree of life. We should talk about it when you get back! We’ll be in Columbus…’ et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”

“OK. Well, that doesn't sound like she's on the verge of converting. Maybe she's just bored. I understand those national theater tours can be grueling.”

Kurt scowled at his scuffed CTR ring, twisting it back and forth over his finger. “I don't even know if that's what I'm upset about. Maybe I'm just angry at myself. You know how much time I spent trying to convert her in high school? Because I thought this church was the best option for everyone. And because she was the only girl I could remotely see myself marrying, and if that was the case, she had to convert. I wasn't going to go through the sacrifice of marrying a woman unless it was a temple marriage. Which, honestly … how many lectures did we get in priesthood quorums about not objectifying the sisters? But isn't looking at a woman as a ticket into heaven objectifying, too? I never considered her feelings about it. If it was good for me, it was good for her. But now, thinking about her reading the Book of Mormon and reading some of the stuff in there—It makes me feel queasy, Blaine.”

Blaine thought he knew what “stuff” Kurt was alluding to. “You mean about the Lamanites been cursed with the skin of blackness? If she's talking to the missionaries, they'll explain it to her the same way we explain it to investigators. That it’s a metaphor, like when we say someone is having ‘dark thoughts.’”

“Do you really believe that, though? Because if Brigham Young was a racist, then maybe Joseph Smith was, too. Maybe he put some of his own opinions into the Book of Mormon.”

“No. First of all, Joseph Smith wasn't a racist. He ordained black men. Second of all, God’s not a racist, so the Book of Mormon can’t be racist, either. It’s the one that tells us God ‘denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male female.’ Even the Bible doesn’t say that.”

Kurt studied Blaine dubiously, then picked up one of the long-abandoned pieces of cookie he'd left on his plate and popped it into his mouth. He chewed it completely before speaking. “I just can't stop thinking about when Elder St. James told me about the doubts Elder Thompson was having. It wasn’t just vague, generic doubts. Elder St. James went through this whole list of specific passages in the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price that Elder Thompson said were racist. And I've been reading over them since and … Blaine. If I take my believer goggles off, if I really look at the passages and take what they say at face value, without trying to find a reason they can't be as bad as they sound—they really do sound racist. I mean, the ‘skin of blackness’ passage sounds even more literal in German. In English, it says ‘because of their iniquity … the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them,’ which—I mean, now when I read it? Interpreting that as dark thoughts seems like a real stretch. I've heard the theory that ‘come upon’ means the same as ‘drape upon, and so ‘skin’ actually refers to ‘clothing’, and it all means that they were no longer allowed to wear the white temple clothes and were forced to dress in black once instead. But in German, it says ‘their skin became black.’ There's none of that idea of being clothed in something. And the German translation is approved by the brethren. So the whole idea of ‘skin of blackness’ being about clothes goes out the window.”

Blaine felt a little queasy. He grabbed one of the German Books of Mormon from the bookshelf and flipped open to 2 Nephi 5. “No, Kurt, that's wrong. It says ‘their skin became blackish.’”

Kurt sat back in his chair, his arms crossed. His mouth was closed, but Blaine could see his tongue moving under his cheeks and lips, probing his teeth. “And how is that any better?”

“Well, schwärzlich could also mean darkish instead of blackish, so maybe it just means their skin got dirty or … OK, it doesn't sound better. But it could still be a metaphor. Joseph Smith was translating from Reformed Hebrew. All languages have idioms that don't translate well. Maybe this is one of them.”

"Sure, maybe. Except that it keeps getting repeated over and over in the book of Mormon. Not just Nephi, but Jacob in Alma talk about good people’s skin being white and bad people’s skin being dark, and if skin means clothes in Reformed Hebrew, then why didn't Joseph Smith translate it that way? Or if it means countenance or spirit, then why doesn't Joseph Smith translate it like that?”

Kurt stood up from the table and began pacing, fidgeting with his CTR ring the whole time. Blaine hoped the jeweler would be done with his new ring soon. It would be much easier to fidget with. “When you or I translate the word ‘in’ from English into German," Kurt continued, "we pick a different word depending on the context. Sometimes it’s in, and sometimes it's im, an, auf, hinein, or unter. Der Hahn can be a rooster or a faucet, but if you're talking about a sink, you should translate it is faucet, not rooster. If Joseph Smith had the gift of translation, then he should have been able to translate things correctly. So either what was written on the golden plates was racist, or Joseph Smith translated it badly and in a way he knew would be interpreted as racist, because he was an American living in the 1830s. Which means he wasn't using his gift of translation to its full extent. Because I'm not gifted, Blaine, but I know that if a German says, ‘My grandparents live where the fox and hare say goodnight to one another,’ I can't translate it that way into English or nobody will understand what I'm saying. I have to say that their grandparents live in the middle of nowhere.”

It was a lot to take in. Blaine was all for Kurt questioning things. He'd been trying to get Kurt to do that for most of their time together, prodding Kurt to recast the beliefs that constrained him into ones that would lead to his liberation. But now, instead of Blaine being the one doing the prodding, it was Kurt. Blaine wasn't so comfortable being poked.

Maybe he could chide Kurt for spending his personal scripture study time scrutinizing passages that gave him doubts, instead of focusing on things that would help them with investigators. But that would be hypocritical, since Blaine had been spending his personal study time fawning over Song of Solomon and anything in scripture vaguely resembling a gay love story—not particularly useful for helping with investigators, either.

“Fine,” Blaine said defensively. “Maybe those passages really are racist. But that would still be a matter of men inserting their beliefs in place of God's teaching. Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was the most correct book of any book on earth, not that it was perfect. And yes, Brigham Young was a racist and tons of our leaders have been racists. It was racism that kept the church from letting black members into the temple until 1978. And there are still people in the church like my granddad who lean on those false teachings, and people in the church who are well-meaning but insensitive, and maybe the leaders could do more to denounce teachings of the past.”

Blaine took a deep breath, gathering up the courage to prod back. “But I still don't understand why you think all these things make the church an unacceptable place for Mercedes. Because you’ve found a home here, despite all the terrible things the leaders have said about gay people, despite the cruel expectations they put on you. And I'm not saying you shouldn't be concerned about racism. What I don't understand is why the church’s racism is so bad that Mercedes shouldn't even be taking lessons with the missionaries, but the homophobia is so hunky-dory you can give your whole life to the church, no questions asked.”

Kurt stopped pacing. He looked like a deer caught in headlights. “That's different. Being gay is …” Kurt drifted off.

“A sin?” Blaine asked, even though it raised his bile just to speak the words. He didn't know if he was gay, but he knew what it was like to love another man. And it was the opposite of sin.

“No. Being gay isn't a sin.”

“But thinking gay thoughts is?”

Kurt shook his head. “I don't know. I don't think so.”

“Doing gay things?”

Kurt sank back into his chair and contemplated the surface of the table. “Maybe? I'm not sure. If you asked me a few weeks ago, I would've said ‘definitely.’ But if the church can be wrong about other things ... I don't know.”

“So,” Blaine said gently, “is it different at all?”

#klaine advent 2022 #klaine advent: recast #wowbright writes fic #mormon!klaine #klaine fanfiction #racism #homophobia #Long discussions about scriptural minutiae #And probably some typos #I still need to do the last valentines one #Also yes I know you can take prodding as a double entendre but I'm using it as the title anyway #Blaine may not like to be poked in this way but he sure like to be poked in some other ways

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