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#this all feels catholic knowledge as well
skaldish · 1 day
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Oh my god I just had a horrible realization. It's a really personal one so please bear with me but I need to share it because…Idk, maybe it's not just me.
But I realized. I didn't actually grow up being a part of any culture. I grew up with seeing culture around me, and sometimes participating in culture temporarily, but I was not raised with a cultural identity of any sort whatsoever.
I identify as an American only because I live in the US, not because I'm acculturated American. I only have the cultural senses I have because it just so happened to be what I was surrounded by.
None of the stories told to me, none of the food I ate, and nothing I wore, were used to convey "This is who we are as people" by my family or community. Stories were just for entertainment, food was just for eating, and clothes were just whatever I liked wearing from the department store. These things weren't, in any way, identity, outside of things I could use to express my own personal identity if I wanted to.
Fuck, I wasn't even given the cultural knowledge associated with the class I was raised in. No leadership skills, no business sense, nothing.
"But what about religion?" No religion either. My family has culturally Catholic leanings, but it's residual and unrecognized.
"What about being white?" The fact that I can't describe what "being white" even means—beyond how I've heard it described—goes to show you my expertise in the matter.
"What about subcultures?" I only know how to participate in subcultures as either a spectator or as a guest. No culture has ever identified me as belonging to it, despite welcoming my participation, and I can't consider myself part of cultures if they don't claim me.
In terms of my cultural identity, I'm completely blank. It's like I have no name.
I write all this because I was thinking about why some Scandinavians would be upset at me using "Heathen" (as well as bigger questions of cultural appropriation in general) and came to this realization.
For the record…I don't consider myself Heathen because I identify as part of Scandinavian culture. That would be absurd. I use "Heathen" because I accidentally befriended a Heathen god. Loki hid his identity from me for years, and I was very upset when when he finally told me who he was—I felt like he betrayed me, and also like I was going insane, because my worldview prior to that did not support the existence of gods.
I dug deep into learning about Norse paganism because I knew understanding Loki within his cultural context was vital to understanding who he is. The reason I started digging around in Scandinavian culture directly, though, was because—surprise!—nothing we have published in the US actually has this context.
…I'm embarrassed to admit I wasn't aware "cultural appropriation" describes a situation where one person walks into another person's culture and says, "Yes, this is my home now," like a cuckoo taking over another bird's nest. I always thought it was a function of mishandling a culture—using it in ways that was careless and ill-informed—but no, it's taking away other peoples' identities in the name of playing dress-up for yourself.
"You're robbing me of myself for your own stupid aesthetic desires!" That's how I imagine it must feel.
It disgusts me to think that's how my actions may have looked.
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lemmming · 1 year
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The last two times I thought Pentiment was about to end it Distinctly did not and it keeps getting me
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galene-gothic · 10 months
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𝖧𝗈𝗐 𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗅 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝗅𝗈𝗏𝖾 𝗌𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗒 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝖿𝗎𝗍𝗎𝗋𝖾 𝗌𝗉𝗈𝗎𝗌𝖾/𝗉𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗇𝖾𝗋 𝖻𝖾𝗀𝗂𝗇?
୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧₊ I hope this reading found you in good health, every reblog is appreciated and thank you for everything :) ˖♡ ˎˊ˗ ꒰ 🐇 ꒱
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⸼ ۫ ︎︎⊹ ! 🪡︎ Pile 1 ꒱
You might meet in or outside a church, museum or funeral. Probably in colder areas and during winter. Some of you might have studied in convents or just catholic schools. You will meet them when you're going through a spiritual awakening, breakthrough or something along those lines. Due to how focused you are on your own life and making life pleasant, you'll be mysterious and extremely desirable to not only your future spouse but also other people around them. You'll be thirsty for knowledge and working on self improvement. Your energy at that time will be extremely sensual because of how self controlled you are. You might be realising your worth at that time and trying to be as aligned as possible which leads you to being viewed as unattainable. Your mindset will be in a good place too. "If I can't change it, I'll just make something out of it." That's how you'll be thinking. Just focusing on things that you can control and taking good care of yourself. You'll be tapping into your feminine energy. Your intuition will be running really high at this time. You might be doing shadow work at that time.
You'll have gained some kind of wisdom at that time and will be trying to live a balanced life. You'll be dissatisfied with how your life is but you'll choose to focus on things that you can control to build a better life for yourself in the future. Your future spouse on the other hand, will be living quite freely. They'll be advancing in life and also very confident. They'll be really growing as a person in every way possible. They'll be focused on the present and the future and expanding their life. They might have a new goal that they will be working towards at that time. They'll be committed to the person they're working to be. They'll have a 'go big or go home' mindset. They'll pretty much be fearless. I think the both of you would have gone through something really rough and transformative which led you to changing yourself for the better. Their first impression of you will be that you have a brain that you make use of. They'll think that you're not the type to rush into love. They'll think that you're an intelligent person who wants to surround themself with intelligent people. They'll think that you're honest and independent. They'll think that you have high standards.
They'll also think that you're pretty open-minded once you say something that makes them think so, before that, the might've been kinda scared of you. They'll think that you're clever. You'll see them as someone with a lot of potential. When you meet them, I don't think that they'll be as successful as you. You'll think that they prefer committed relationships. You'll assume that they're an outdoorsy person. You'll think that they really value stability in general. Please keep in mind that these are just assumptions because well, it's your first meeting. You'll be able to see that they value money and have a lot of potential to earn money too. You might think that they're kind of stingy. You'll see them as someone who's still growing and can grow to be unrecognisable. Moving onto the first conversation, you'll be initiating it. Your first conversation itself is going to be pretty deep. You'll both talk about forgiveness and acceptance. I just heard 'lack of acceptance is the cause of all suffering'. This conversation is a bit heavy but you'll both be talking as if it's some show 😭. You'll both talk about resilience and finding strength to move forward regardless of what happens.
You'll both likely be in a transition period too. Let's look at how you'll be feeling during your first conversation, you'll be feeling restricted and be very guarded. You'll be feeling insecure of getting judged. Your mind will be making you feel powerless, you'll definitely have something else bothering you for you to be feeling like this. You'll be trying your best not to feel this way though even if you're not aware of it. There will likely be other people around you and people who might know you or people who might know them which will leave them feeling watched. It'll be difficult for them to be fully open because of this and also because it's your first conversation. Don't get me wrong, you'll be trying to stay true to yourself and all but you'll just be feeling uncomfortable and scared because of past experiences and hurts. You'll want someone to save you at that time, even if you won't be aware of it. Them on the other hand, they'll be feeling healed. While you'll be scared everytime you let something out, they'll be feeling passionate about whatever you're speaking about. They'll be feeling free and optimistic. They'll be feeling really peaceful and calm. They'll be able to look at things from your perspective and will be managing emotions very well. They'll be staying true to themself.
They'll be the one to fall in love first, they'll fall in love with you in within a few days, weeks or within two months of you meeting. You'll fall in love with them in a few months or years. They'll fall in love with you because you try to take good care of yourself and try to live a relaxed life. You have something about you that's very relaxed or relaxing. They'll see you as peace loving and caring. You might do some self care activities, even if it's just eating well/drinking enough water. I'm getting that many of you here will be into meditating at that time too. I think that something about you is very submissive and breedable. They'll be able to sense the purity in your intentions and soul. They'll also see you as someone extremely beautiful. They'll respect you and feel respected by you. They'll think that you care about material success and possessions. They'll fall in love with you because you make them have realisations that pretty much change their life for the best. They'll also feel really loved by you and feel like you care about their well-being and it's difficult not to love someone who makes you feel loved.
They'll think that you have an abundant mindset and energy that they'll really look up to. Interacting with you will make them want to live a good life on Earth in any way possible. You'll also always (through your actions) affirm that you're a good person who's worthy of their love and that's definitely beautiful. They'll love the way you express yourself. The fact that they love you will also be a sudden realisation to them. They'll fall in love with you in an instant because of something you say or do. They'll feel so grateful to be able to meet you, they'll feel lighter, at home and extremely emotionally attuned around you. The connection you share will feel very familiar right from the start. I'm getting that whenever they'll see you (before they realise that they're in love with you), they'll feel really confused, excited and even annoyed when they see you. One day, they'll be really tired (physically, mentally or emotionally). They'll be pretty much drained if I'm honest. Even when they first met you, they might have been in a similar energy but they didn't express it but as you get to know them, this part of them will start showing.
You'll say something that'll make them realise that healing is necessary before they step into anything. They might start acting annoyed whenever they see you at some point because they don't understand how they feel towards you but you'll be patient with them. Your kindness is exactly what they'll need at that point of time. You'll help them realise that their past wounds are preventing relationship growth. Even though they'll be tired, you'll be able to help them tap into the strength and courage to continue going. They'll be so grateful to you. They'll feel extremely emotional around you and maybe even sleepy. Your balanced approach to things will help them a lot and the more they get to know you, the more breathless they'll get due to how great of a person you. They'll be like "how is [___] even real?" You'll fall in love with them because they're intelligent and even if they might not be particularly spiritual, they hold a lot of wisdom. They'll be a balanced person with a duality. You'll find them to be really efficient which helps you become efficient too. They'll also probably try to help you without you having to ask them.
They're also extremely observant and make you feel seen, heard, felt and special. There'll be something about them that you'll not be able to put a finger on, something that makes them so intriguing, so mysterious. You'll feel like they understand you because they have the understanding that everyone has darker qualities but that doesn't mean they don't have a single light quality. You'll feel like they can feel your feelings including your pain, etc. You'll feel understood on a level that you didn't consider possible. They'll bring out sides of you that you weren't aware existed and vice versa. You might actually dream about them before you meet them. You might not see their face but you'll feel their energy and when you first meet them, they might feel really familiar to you. You'll realise that you're in love with them when they help you during some hardship, could be financial. You'll be worried and trying to isolate yourself but they'll not give up on you. You'll be able to feel that they care about you and that they're worried about your well-being. You'll just stare at them for a while when you realise that you're in love with them.
You'll feel like the universe has given up on you, life doesn't work in your favour but they'll be there to remind you that they're there and things will eventually pass. You'll be feeling really lonely and unsupported by others. You might have loss friends, family or just broken up too. For a few of you, you will be sick but they'll take care of you. You'll be lacking faith and hope in yourself and your life but they'll have faith in you and try to remind you to have faith. They'll help you look at your past and resolve unhealed issues in order to move forward in the future. I just got the imagery of someone guiding a kid and helping them walk, that's how you'll feel with them. They'll teach you how to walk again (metaphorically). They'll be the one to confess, they'll probably confess either in September or October or one year after they've realised their feelings. They'll be honest and tell their feelings out loud to you. They might actually send you a text, email, letter, voicemail or voice call. I'm getting that face to face confession might be difficult, it's possible for many of you though. They'll have taken a lot of advice from others about it.
The confession will likely be followed by a suggestion to get married. It'll just be a suggestion though 💀. They will propose to you soon, probably October or November. They'll be very grand this time, very confident and kinda childlike. They'll be extremely enthusiastic and show you a more childlike, fun, unrestricted and innocent side. They'll kinda be taking vows while proposing to you. "I promise to always be there for you in the coldest seasons and the unbearably hot ones, I promise to take care of you when you're sick and hurt." You might get married or atleast engaged within thirty days of the confession/proposal.
⸼ ۫ ︎︎⊹ ! 🪡︎ Pile 2 ꒱
You'll not be alone when you meet them and you'll likely meet them in a place that gives off a healing vibe. Might be near the nature too. I'm not sure why but I'm getting that you might meet them at an institute, community or camp that's very healing, however, people might go there for several different reasons. Like, for example, a church where some people go to pray because they actually believe in Jesus, some people who go there to build a community, etc. or a school that's open on the weekends (for students) who can go there to study, read, play basketball, play volleyball or just chill. This place might be located in a quieter place in the town, city or whatever. Even though this place will be healing and quieter, the things that you'll be doing will be fast paced and high energy, however that's still going to be healing for you guys. There's a sense of everything being fated. You'll both be there for some spiritual progress. You guys might be playing a game or something (I heard 'bet' and 'gamble'). Could be board games too, for some reason I'm getting that you might not participate but will be watching.
Could be them too but for 80% of you, it'll be you. Well, either way you'll be socializing regardless of whether you're an active participant in a game or not. They'll be extremely focused and disciplined when you'll meet them. They'll have recently removed themself from fear of their mind and past. They might have taken advice from some woman which led them to the energy that they'll be in, the woman might be older than them (can range from anywhere 1-30 years). Their mind will be working well though, strategic, rational, disciplined, clear, quick, etc. They'll be at a point where you cannot easily fool them. They'll also not be looking for approval anymore. They'll be releasing the past and cutting people off. They'll realise that they require and deserve people who are smart and have similar values around them. They might have a goal or multiple goals that they'll be very focused on at that time. You on the other hand, you'll be confident and exploring life. I think you're the pile who has a zest for experiences, you love gaining experiences and learning lessons regardless of how traumatizing they might be at times.
You'll also be feeling a strong sense of integrity. You might be developing new values or you'll be living up to the values that you'll have. You'll be looking forward to the future. I just heard 'expansion', you'll want to build something for yourself and will probably be working towards it. I just heard that audio 'please lord, make me the biggest star the world has ever known so that I can go far away from this place'. You might be wanting to move somewhere or make a really big dream come true with like eight dollars in your bank account. You'll be experiencing life and will be dreaming big. You'll be wanting all of your dreams to come true. Some of you might be really nostalgic people and don't really let go of people easily and keep on giving chances until you start feeling disgusted by their behaviour. You'll finally have left most people who you don't really vibe with anymore and I'm getting that some of you might be kinda alone but at the same time not really. You might have one or two friends/family members who'll believe in you and give you enough courage to move forward.
You'll be learning how to balance the past, present and the future. You'll be extremely focused on all these three areas especially discipline, working hard and making your dreams come true. You'll not be letting your past attachments and events leave you paralyzed on bed anymore. Even if you won't, you'll still be able to believe in yourself and move forward. I just heard 'hollywood dream' and 'law school'. You guys might be the type who wants results immediately but you'll be learning how to be patient with yourself and life at that point. You'll also be celebrating your past achievements even if they feel like nothing in comparison to the big dreams that you'll be carrying in your little steps. You'll be going with the flow and focusing on what you can control. I don't remember what's in pile 1 because I wrote that quite a while ago but I'm getting a feeling that the two might be connected in some way. For some of you, you'll get married to two people and for some, one will be your perspective, the other will be their perspective or a mix of both the piles or something.
At first sight, i.e. when they haven't had a conversation with you yet, they'll assume that you're someone compassionate and feminine regardless of your gender. They'll assume that you're a mature, emotionally intelligent, calm and forgiving person. They'll think that you're the nurturing type. After they get to have a decent conversation with you they'll be a bit surprised to find out how career oriented you really are. You'll make it really clear that you care about money. Oh. my. god. 'money, money, money' by Abba started playing. They'll think that you have & care about success & money. They'll think that you have strong principles. On talking with you, they'll realise that you're probably high reputation & will think that you're probably well respected. They might actually hear you say something like "don't date broke men/women" or something. They'll think that you wish to have a well off partner. They'll assume that you must be really disciplined. They'll think that you have a lot of resources and are business minded. At the beginning, they will assume that you will probably not have the strongest boundaries.
They will come to realise that they assumed wrong and be able to pick up on your grounded nature when they get to talk to you. Your first impression of them when you haven't had a decent conversation yet will be that they're manipulative and know how to use their tongue to their advantage. You'll just assume that they must be feeling stuck in life, victimize themself & have a negative mindset. Once you have a conversation with them, you'll realise that they're strategic and use their brain to solve problems. You'll think that they're releasing something from their past and aren't the type to rush in love. You'll think that the prefer being around intelligent people and desire mentally stimulating conversations. You'll think that they're reasonable and intelligent. You'll think that they're disciplined. When they first get to see you (when you both haven't talked yet but know that the other exists) they'll not really be feeling an attraction & that's alright. I think it's actually healthy. They'll see you as someone who is a co-worker/just someone who they're sharing the same environment with.
You'll feel untrusting and suspicious of them. You'll think that the intentions that they hold towards everyone seem really unclear. Your first significant conversation with each other will be about dreams, wishes, family, etc. You'll be able to talk about your values and accept each other's differences. The conversation will flow pretty easily. There'll be a playful element present in the conversation. One of you might be like 'family is everything' and the other one might be like 'blood means nothing'. It doesn't have to be that way for all of you though. Whichever one of you doesn't have the best relationship with your family will be very happy for the other one to be able to have a worthy enough family who they can care about so much and vice versa. They might talk about their mother or someone they really admire from their family, likely, an older woman. You'll feel like you belong with each other, kind of an instant connection. You'll be able to make major progress on your inner child healing and connection after this conversation. You'll be feeling much more courageous and positive about the future.
You'll feel a sense of fondness towards them that you don't really understand either. It'll feel like love to you but since it was only the first conversation, you'll choose to tone it down. You'll start holding really warm feelings towards them. They'll feel extremely curious about you. I'm getting a sense of an innocent love. They'll try to be practical because only fools rush in but they won't really be able to help falling in love with you. They'll feel like the conversation you shared had a really intimate and emotional undertone. They'll be imagining stuff about you. They'll start wanting to kind of protect you without even really being aware of it. They'll be the one to fall in love first, they'll fall in love with you because it's kind of an institutional setting which leads you to seeing each other often and you'll prove to be like a teacher to them. They'll want something committed with you. Your beliefs will cause them to think a lot. There'll be mutual respect between the both of you. They'll want to be dependable for you and you'll make them want to depend on you. I'm getting that you'll make them want to build something for themself and for you.
They'll fall in love with you within 3 days - 8 weeks. You'll fall in love with them in around 9 months. Your love language might be physical touch and they'll give you a lot of physical affection which will kind of melt your heart. They'll add excitement into your life. They'll make you feel more attractive and self assured. Your person seems to have a fiery personality atleast with you which might attract a lot of drama into your life which you'll actually enjoy. You'll find them hot, you will probably feel physically hot around them too. They'll come off extremely confident. You'll see them as someone passionate and ambitious. They'll make your inner child extremely happy. The dynamic between the both of you is going to feel extremely pure & kinda innocent to you which will give off an old-school, young love vibe that you'll love. They're going to make you feel adored and you're going to find this love to be so endearing, magical even. You'll fall in love with them when they give you life advice of some sort & realise that you're in love with them when you both are sharing knowing glances with other people around you.
There seems to be a sense of silence when you're with each other even with other people around. They'll probably confess or for some of you, propose after two years. For some of you, they'll confess in a bank or somewhere near it. For others, it's probably going to be at their house/somewhere with greenery present. They might confess at night, they'll talk about their past fears regarding the connection and life in general. They'll just spill the emotions that they feel towards you but cannot contain inside themself anymore or they might say something like "isn't the moon beautiful?" This is so cute lmao, all the best.
⸼ ۫ ︎︎⊹ ! 🪡︎ Pile 3 ꒱
You could meet them at a club, museum, therapy, etc. You'll not be alone when you meet them. You might be with someone who's either a good person but a doormat or someone who's bitchy & constantly victimizing themself. Whoever this is will be very sad though. They could be going through a heartbreak at that time. Since, I'm getting that you won't be alone, it's probably not individual therapy. You'll be in a hardworking energy when you meet them. You'll have goals that you'll be soaring towards. If anyone here has quit education or work, you might actually continue it later. Like, just an example but supposing you dropped out of Yale because you didn't want to study anymore but after a few months or years you might realise that you actually want to complete your education & might join Stanford or Harvard. It'll be an old path with a new environment & you'll probably have new businesses or whatever side hustles you'll be working on. You'll be working towards a better future. They'll be in their mysterious era. I think the both of you will be lonely but have different ways of romanticizing it.
They'll be introspective and balancing different sides of themself. A lot of hidden knowledge will be coming up in their conscious awareness. They will be in a very serene period even if they don't feel like it at that time. I wouldn't be surprised if they are in some sort of an isolation or spiritual retreat. They'll be gaining wisdom & realizing a lot of things. You both seem to be on the right path. At first glance, you'll assume that they probably have a strong circle, something about them screams 'support'. You'll think that they're social and enjoy life. They'll come off as very popular to you. You'll think that they're kind of the 'life of the party' & well liked and loved. You'll think that people want to be around them. You'll think that they are someone who likes to make everyone feel included. They'll seem to be a happy person to you who is & wishes to spread happiness. You'll think that they're an open-hearted person. You'll also assume that they probably have a lot of options in any and all ways possible. Your first impression of them, at first glance (when you haven't had a conversation with them yet) seems to resemble the character image of Kazehaya from the anime 'from me to you'.
You'll assume that they're a loving man/woman. Their gentle character is going to be extremely evident for you to see. I'm getting that some of you probably feel like you don't fit in, don't vibe with people well, might have lost almost everyone in the previous years or something like that so the fact that they'll be including you without making you feel uncomfortable is going to start melting your heart. Being around them is going to feel very healing to you and you'll notice it. Something about them will just hit different. Their first impression of you (when you haven't had a conversation with each other) is that you prefer being alone. They'll think that you enjoy and practice self care. Something about you will make them assume that you like solitude. There are two groups of you here, the first group when you'll meet them, while they'll think that you enjoy solitude and like being alone, they'll think so because you will look or act kind of overwhelmed and the other group will come off that way because they seem much more calm & self reflective. You might look like you can't wait to get back home 💀.
I think that regardless of which of the two groups you'll belong to, at some point you'll finally get comfortable enough to not act on your nerves anymore. They'll notice that you're pretty witty and know how to handle situations & talk your way out of conflict. They'll also realise that you somehow have a lot of information on other people's lives. At this point you'll come off pretty curious and talkative until you will have completely drained your social battery. You'll be the one to start the first decent conversation with them. I'm getting that they will try to talk to you before that but you'll just be a bit overwhelmed & reserved with everything. Your first decent conversation might or might not happen during this meeting. Even though I'm getting that it will be during this meeting for most of you. You'll talk about love, affection, friends having to have similar values otherwise things will go south, etc. They'll be able to pick up on the painful emotions that you'll be dealing with. You'll both be acting kinda defensive and avoidant while still trying to get to know each other properly. You'll both be trying to keep your hearts open instead of being defensive though.
During your first conversation, you'll feel like you want to manage your life better. You'll realise that you have unlimited issues to handle and deal with. You'll be staying quite alert and patient. They'll make you feel like you should be clear with your priorities. You'll feel like you want to adapt to them and deal with your issues while getting to know them rather than abandon them and your own issues 😭. You'll be feeling supported, supportive, understood and understanding of them. You'll be able to see the potential for something long term but you'll still be trying to keep your options open. I'm getting that you guys are the type to get attached pretty early on during the talking stage so yeah you'll be trying not to get attached. They'll be focused on their life purpose, values and development. They'll be wanting to move forward with your connection too, they'll want to get to know you better. They'll be feeling quite self confident and proud. They'll feel like their hardwork and self commitment is visible to you. They'll feel attracted towards you and will be able to imagine commitment with you.
They'll fall in love with you first. You'll take a month or more to fall in love while they'll take a few days or weeks. They'll fall in love with you because they're the type to easily get bored but they'll enjoy even the most boring things with you. They'll also feel like they kinda can't make you commit to them so it'll be like a challenge to them. It's like they'll be rushing around too much to commit to anyone but they meet you and everything changes. You'll make them think and challenge them. They'll also find you to be very intelligent and ambitious so attraction will just flow. Your connection will be very dynamic, you'll treat each other well while still roasting each other, you'll play around and make jokes but still have mature and deep conversations. They won't be able to understand where they stand with you and they'll want to figure it out really bad. They'll think that you're really dedicated to your own success and who doesn't admire someone ambitious right? You'll fall in love with them because you'll think that they have higher knowledge of some sort. You'll also really admire their ability to overcome obstacles.
You'll also fall in love with them because they teach you a lot and help you better yourself and your life. They change you. At some point, you'll feel as if everything you've become is because of them. You'll not discredit your own hardwork and dedication ofcourse but they'll help you so much, it'll be difficult not to give them credit for your success. They are the type to look to their past and take life lessons to gain clarity and move forward. They'll change you and your life to the point where you'll wonder what would have happened if you never went there, what would've happened if you never met them & just the thought of it terrifies you. You will be trying to distract yourself with work, trying to live selfishly and hiding your kindness even though you're very kind but they'll help you realise that it's okay to be kind. They'll be so kind that you won't be able to help but admire & love them that you'll feel much more comfortable to be kind too. You might not be very nice to them in the beginning though. It'll be difficult for the both of you to let your guards down but especially for you.
They'll say something that will make you have a beautiful epiphany that will totally change your life & they'll only continue making you have more realisations. They'll be so kind, so knowledgeable, so imperfectly perfect that you'll not be able to help but be in awe of them. You'll be entering a new chapter of your life & they'll be exactly what you need. You'll desire them, unbearably. They'll be like a chance to live again. You'll have forgotten what being genuinely happy feels like but they'll awaken that feeling in you. They'll also call you out on your shit but will be nice with it first then assertive later and that's exactly what you'll need and want. About how you'll realise that you love them, something in your life will be causing you confusion of both thoughts & emotions. At that time, they'll say something that'll make you feel extremely grateful, accepted and aware. They'll help you seize opportunities and let go of regret. You might be be the type to be swallowed by your sadness and might be having a hard time even getting out of bed but they'll help you feel motivated and build discipline.
They'll just be living as a self disciplined and wise person. They'll seem very comfortable with themself. You'll feel intrigued. You'll realise that they're one of the healthiest people to be in a relationship of any kind with & when you're in a loss of words. You'll internally accept that you're in love them. They'll make you realise that you have it in you to be successful and abundant. That it is just your carelessness and overconfidence leading to a poor execution and thus unsatisfactory results. Also, be careful, you'll likely not openly accept it at that time and might let your ego and guard get the best of you which will not be helpful to your connection. They'll realise that they're in love with you when they're struggling with temporary pessimism after being over optimistic for some time. At that point, they'll be struggling to see the brighter side of life but you'll help them be optimistic all over again. They'll just be talking to you and you'll bring out a happier side of them by being the pessimistic one. They'll just suddenly realise that they love you including your sometimes harsh sides, your constant need for mental stimulation, blinding ambitions, etc.
You'll intrigue them with your questions, you'll challenge them and make them think. There will be times when they'll feel the need to be really quick with you, in regards to action. Since, they usually don't feel that way, it'll not take them much to realise that they're in love with you once they start feeling urges to tell you stuff or do things for you. They'll admire your dedication to success, you'll be working on or towards something when you'll meet them. You'll be confident and self assured which will motivate them to be the same way too. They'll be too shy to confess it though. You seem to have options, there'll be a lot of competition when it comes to you. They'll feel overwhelmed by how much affection they have towards you. They'll think about giving up very often but even on trying to do so, they won't be able to. One of you will wonder if it's just a waste of your power, time and energy. One of you will have a lot of doubt, like 'what if they don't feel the same connection and it's just me?'. People might actually say things like "why would they even like you?" or might talk shit about one of you behind your back.
So, whoever that person is will be hurt and burdened by other people's opinions on your connection. These people will just shred one of your confidence and fill you with fear and embarassment. I just heard "what is wrong with me?" I'm getting that they'll confess first but it'll be indirect. Then, one day they'll accomplish something or you'll accomplish something and you'll celebrate together and they'll suddenly confess/propose again. They'll tell you things like "everyone adores any respects you, it's not just me". This time it will be very direct and forward. There's a chance that other people are present too. This was cute, take care.
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hauntedhokage · 6 months
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salvation
Priest!Nanami Kento/F!Reader
word count: 2k
summary: you’ve been avoiding the church, the weight of your unabsolved sins sits heavy on your shoulders, and you know that he knows. he could always see right through you.
warnings: MDNI, priest kink, blasphemy up the ass, references to sexual content (sex in a church and unprotected sex), unintended use of a rosary & prayer, manipulation, Nanami refers to reader as “lamb” and “little one”, this is not their first meeting, established…something, reader is some kind of devout to Nanami and not necessarily to the religion itself at this point,
note: this is heavily inspired by my experience in church (read: very catholic), but I was also trying to lean more into my own vision of  “cult-religion” while not explicitly naming any particular religion that reader and Nanami are failing at practicing. Technically this is act iii but idk if I’ll write the acts i & ii that are in mind. 
AO3 | Nanami Masterlist | All Masterlists | Ko-fi |
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You’d been avoiding the church. 
Always conveniently scheduled to work during the different scheduled mass times, and the one time you hadn’t been working you’d faked sick. Faking sick again wasn’t an option, as you were still working through the various meals that were brought your way to help you feel better and didn’t need any additional tupperware to wash and return to your neighbors. Your boss hadn’t scheduled you during Mass in a while, stating that he knew how much going meant to you and now that business was a bit slower he could afford to give you that time back. Everyone wanted you back in that church, sharing the house of worship and the teachings being preached because they all felt you needed it. 
What it provided, you didn’t know. It used to feel natural to be there, enlightening even. Confessional once lifted the weight of your transgressions and had you feeling lighter with the knowledge that your path had been redirected. The reassurance that the gates of heaven had not yet been shut to you, the feeling of light that came when you were told that you were still part of His flock, safe from the fiery darkness of hell - nothing topped that feeling. 
But it wasn’t that you were avoiding the church. 
You were hiding from Father Kento. 
He knew you better than anybody else did at this point, and you hadn’t known him long. It had been maybe six months since he’d come to replace the older priest who had passed away, and how quickly he’d drawn you in - like a moth to his flame and you were trying to avoid getting burnt. He was a priest, after all, even if everything you knew about him went against your understanding of what priests actually did. But maybe that was what you liked about him? Father Kento to you was a completely different man than he was to anybody else, you knew him better because you’d been blessed with the opportunity to see more of him. He’d taken “priestly liberties” to see to your salvation, took special care of you as his most precious lamb, and this was how you repaid him and his kindness? Avoiding he who had given so much to you?
“You look troubled, little lamb.”
And there he was. Always there when you seemed to be thinking about him the most, only in the last few weeks you’d turned away when you saw him at the market or on your way to or from work. Today, though, there is no avoiding him for he’s standing right in front of you. A gentle hand on your elbow (to steady you, would be his cover for a touch so intimate), eyes looking right through you it seemed. 
“Good evening, Father,” you greet, smile soft yet still uncertain as you meet that piercing gaze. “How are you?”
“I’ve been worried about you, but I’m well.” There it was, so quickly to the point yet still managing to be indirect given the public setting that was the middle of the sidewalk. “How have you been?”
“I’ve been alright. Busy, then-”
“Then you weren’t well, yes?”
“That’s where I need to confess.” Your admission earns a quirked brow, the ghost of a smile gracing his features under the streetlight as he gives your arm a squeeze. 
“Would you like to come with me to the church? Somewhere private where we can talk and hopefully provide some solace to that troubled mind.” 
Another act of familiarity, this time his thumb gently running up from the bridge of your nose and between your eyes to smooth out your furrowed brow. A gentle pat to the top of your head follows when you nod, and that has him smiling as he gives a nod of his own before turning to lead you back towards the church. During the walk you tell him about your day, how work was and sharing a fun fact you’d learned that day. In turn he tells you what he can about his, out of interest to respect the private lives of others in the parish. It’s natural, nobody would assume any less than holy intentions to see you being guided down the sidewalk by Father Kento. 
But as soon as you’re inside the walls of the church, the loud click ringing through your ears signaling that you were alone with him and would see no intrusion, you feel almost like a lamb being presented for sacrifice. 
He follows you to where you usually sat shen it was just the two of you in the large building, on the steps in front of the pews, beneath the stained glass but out of its reach when the light shone through at most hours of the day. He does what he always did, dimming the lights before lighting the candles that would provide more intimate lighting for the conversations yet to come.
Father Kento always made you feel special. 
“Where’ve you been, little one? I miss seeing you front and center at mass.”
That was where you were nervous. To tell him what was on your mind, as well as the things that you’d been doing in lieu of attending church and confession, wasn’t going to be easy. He’d be disappointed, and you think for a moment that maybe that’s what you were hiding from. Not Father Kento himself, but the disappointed look in his eyes when you confessed to him that you failed to resist temptation - failed to come to him for protection from that temptation. 
But you tell him anyway, sparing no detail as you know the only way to be absolved of your sins was to confess them. He does an excellent job of keeping his face neutral, hands idly turning his rosary as he listens, and that helps you to ensure that you maintain that honesty. You knew it would hurt him to hear that you’d let another man touch you, that you were hiding from his disappointment, that you were afraid of being a distraction from his work. By the time you’re done your own hands are in his, wrapped in his rosary which eased their shakiness and brought a great deal of comfort.
“I’m sorry that you felt that you couldn’t find sanctuary here,” he murmurs, carefully pressing his forehead to yours. “You should know that I would never judge, and am always here to help you cleanse your sins.”
“I know, I know,” you whisper, looking down at your joined hands. The crystal beads don’t feel as heavy on your skin as they had when he’d started to bring them around your skin, which helps considerably but doesn’t completely relieve you. “I’m sorry, Father, sorry that my faith in you became so weak.”
“God forgave you as soon as you entered his House.”
“But have you forgiven me, Father?” The question brings him pause, and you know why it would. In his eyes, God’s forgiveness should be most important to you, and if God can forgive why would you need to hear anything else? He liked to tease that you were constantly testing him, but this wasn’t a test. This was how you truly felt, and you feared his reaction but you still finish your thought to improve his understanding of your situation. “God’s love means nothing if I don’t have yours.”
“My love for you has not waned in your absence. You are forgiven for your transgressions, my lamb, and I would like to reassure you in that forgiveness.”
You’re kissing him before you can properly process the implication of his words, knowing that what you needed was the specific brand of salvation that only came from Father Kento’s touch. His hands pull from yours, leaving the rosary to hang from your hands as his come to hold your cheeks. Father Kento’s kiss was as he was; calculated and warm, knowing exactly what he needed to do or how he needed to move to maximize your experience in his arms. 
“Please do not drop my rosary, sweet lamb,” he mumbles, lips moving to your neck while his hands work to position you on his lap. “It’s key to your salvation this evening.”
Your attempt at assurance that you’d never drop his rosary - or anything of his, really - is cut off by a whine when sharp teeth dig into your shoulder. A signal to God, he’d said once, to let him know that you’d bled for your faith and did so willingly. You have to separate your hands so he can pull your shirt over your head, and he pulls the cross that now dangles against your forearm into his mouth as he looks up at you through his lashes. Perhaps it's a reminder to be careful, a reminder of where your faith should lie, but you take it as an invitation and press your mouth to his in an open kiss around the quickly warming metal.
“I have to properly present you to God, little lamb. Ensure that he can properly see you embrace your salvation.” And you know exactly what he means as you finally pull yourself from him, letting the spit slick rosary fall against your arm once more before you stand on shaky legs. You needed to bare yourself before God and the Father, present yourself at the altar to accept your salvation. Akin to taking the sacrament, but this brand of salvation was reserved specifically for you - for Father Kento’s favorite little lamb. 
There's a symbolism here that you can’t miss as he lifts you onto the altar - the focal point of the church beneath the intricate stained glass windows depicting images of peace and holiness.
The lamb presented for sacrifice as she’s laid atop the altar, but there’s no knife in his hand. Even if there was, you would only feel reverence for the man standing before you - the man you trusted with your life. You were his little lamb, his favorite within the flock to be used as an example but never to be harmed. If you were ever sacrificed; you’d be reincarnated to once again be his favorite, he’d said it himself that in every instance of your shared existence that he knew he would always find you. The shepherd tends to the flock, always, and a lost lamb would find her way home to the shepherd who loved her so dearly.  
“Are you ready to embrace salvation?”
“Please, Father.” Your hand searches for him, something that you can hold onto when you feel his tip slide through your folds. His hand catches yours, the tight grip pressing the rosary beads into the tender flesh of your palm to the point where you know you’ll see indentations from the intricate bead and metalwork decorating your skin. Another reminder of your repentance to join the soft bruises on your hips, markings on your shoulder, and the remnants of Father Kento’s holy essence that would be left inside you once he’d finished. 
You were far from pure, but so was he. Figuring out where he lost any hope of the salvation he preached would take months of carefully placed questions, but you knew when you’d lost your own. He was unassuming, a kind priest who followed the path lit by God’s light, but at the same time all consuming as he ravaged you from the inside out. Your road to hell had not been paved with good intentions, as he’d intended on dragging you down with him on his own road to damnation. 
But Hell didn’t seem so bad to you if it would be his, too.  
Despite it all, you’d follow him anywhere, if he asked you to go. It wasn’t any god that you prayed to when referring to a Father in your prayers, for Kento was the only Father you prayed to. Your heavenly father, and you know that you will not stray far from his side again. 
You knew better than to hurt yourself like that again. 
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spacelazarwolf · 1 year
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Forgive me if I'm wrong about anything. I'm not Jewish but I was raised for a good part of my life by a Jewish stepmom and am planning to convert when my life offers me that stability. But. Something I notice relating to the "Hitler burned queer stuff first" and j general desire to make oneself a victim of Nazism is that American kids are mostly taught about Judaism through like, media that is targeted at non-Jewish people and is trying to almost beg them for empathy. Average gentiles have very little knowledge about Jewish life - both joy and suffering, something that came as a bit of a shock to me as gentile who grew up with stepsiblings/mom celebrating holidays, going to temple, having a sense of community, and being aware of the levels of antisemetic violence in their area. My point is that a lot of people on the left tend to think of Jewish people as like. white people with a different religion. Instead of members of a complex culture. Thus, it's easy to ignore people like Magnus Hirschfield or pretend you could be someone the Nazis targeted. Does any of that make sense? Sorry. U probably know all that already but I'm tired of yelling it at my Catholic friend hehe
oh 100000000% this.
i feel like one piece of media that really portrays this weird attitude of victimization that a lot of white non roma gentiles have when it comes to the holocaust (and before anyone comes for me, i'm not saying queer and trans people aren't targeted by nazis) is "boy in the striped pajamas." it's a film that has been widely criticized by jews and scholars for misrepresenting many elements of the holocaust, and because the main message of it is "wow isn't it sad that this poor little gentile boy died??????" you're not supposed to be sad that millions of jews and roma were being murdered, you're supposed to be sad because bruno's not a jew or roma and was killed on accident. and i feel like that really feeds into this mindset of "it could have been me!!!!! therefore this is actually all about me!!!!!"
i often see queer people say things like "well the jews were released immediately after the war ended but queer people were kept in prisons!!!!!!" as if jews and roma got to just go about their normal lives. what actually happened is that several thousand of them died from health complications caused by starvation and poor living conditions in the camps, and the ones who survived returned to their homes only to face more pogroms, discrimination, or complete denial from their gentile neighbors who had turned a blind eye.
what queer and trans gentiles really need to realize is that when it comes to the holocaust, hitler's targeting of queer and trans people is entirely inseparable from antisemitism. i mean even a lot of modern anti trans sentiments are ultimately rooted in antisemitism. the sooner they realize that, the sooner they can stop acting like we can only care about one group at a time.
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sunshineyuuji · 1 year
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Surprising Facts
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IkeVamp suitors with an s/o who randomly says interesting facts
Characters: Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Arthur Conan Doyle, Le Comte de Saint-Germain, Johann Georg Faust
Warnings: maybe ooc since I don't know their personalities well, bad English (?), some facts may be a little disturbing (Isaac's part), gn!reader/fem!reader.
Notes: hello~! It's great to write again! I hope you're all taking care. This is the first time I write anything that has to do with the Ikemen series, so I hope you like it (╥﹏╥). Also, this is a tiny bit too much inspired by things I say to my friends and family so enjoy this little random facts I know, te-hee~.
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Leonardo Da Vinci
"Did you know that Samuel Morse, the creator of the telegraph and Morse code ran for mayor of New York, but was against Catholics and immigrants?"
"I beg your pardon?"
It's really fun to have them around, though he sometimes doesn't understand some of the facts they throw at him and asks them to explain.
He learns more about future events through their random facts than asking the other residents.
He gets caught off guard by some of the facts his s/o throws at him though.
"Nutmeg is a hallucinogen."
Sometimes tries to ask them things that he thinks may be difficult for them to know, but he always fails.
"Actually, Sudan has more pyramids than any other country in the world."
His s/o never fails to impress him and he loves that.
They’re just cute darlings full of knowledge! They’re pretty and smart!
Secretly wishes to surprise his s/o with something they don't know.
Perhaps his unconditional love for them.
"And did you know, tesoro, that I love you dearly?"
I'm sure they didn't know that one, did they?
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Isaac Newton
"Did you know the human stomach can dissolve razor blades?"
"Y/N, please, PLEASE stop with the creepy information."
Look, he's glad they’re drenched in information, but WHY do they choose to tell him the creepy ones?
He knows some of the facts his s/o tells him, others are more modern so he asks them information about it.
But when it comes to the creepy ones...
"Acids can dissolve a body more completely than lye, liquefying even the bones and teeth."
"And why do you need this information?!"
Let's face it, it's a bit weird that they know that, but they’re full of information!
Although they always have one or two that make him smile.
"Did you know the world's longest marriage lasted 86 years?"
Isaac looked up at his s/o with intrigue.
"Why don't we break the record?" they smiled at him and laughed when they noticed his cheeks blush.
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Arthur Conan Doyle
"There are four law books bound in human skin at the Harvard University Library."
"Bound in what?!"
It feels like a competition.
He wants to outsmart them in saying something they don't know, but never finds anything.
"Video cameras were invented in 1891."
"Mmm that was the movie camera called Kinetograph, but in 1888 Louis Le Prince invented a single-lens camera that created the first and oldest motion video in existence."
"Bloody hell, Y/N!"
Don't worry, there is one thing he can do that leaves them with no answer.
And that is at flirting.
"You may be a little know-it-all, but you're still my cute dove, aren't you?" he chuckles. "Oh yes, I always win in the game of seduction."
Always uses the little random facts they give him on books.
Like that one time when his s/o told him that hydrogen peroxide dissolves blood!
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Comte de Saint-Germain
Let's be clear, this man knows quite a lot thanks to his time travels.
But that doesn't stop his s/o from saying a thing or two.
"It's interesting how people often paint you as a time traveler and an immortal being without knowing they're right. Isn't it ironic?"
Asks more about future events like wars that are soon to come or any type of information that calls his attention.
"In your time, which is the most famous book?"
"Currently the Bible. It's the most recognizable and famous book that has ever been published."
He always has this soft smile whenever they tell him anything out of the blue, either because of amusement or because he loves how they smile whenever they tell him any random fact.
It's adorable to say the least, and he will make sure to always make them feel proud of their knowledge.
"Ma chèrie is very smart and knowledgeable. I sure am a lucky man, aren't I?"
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Johann Georg Faust
Let's be for real, he's a smart ass.
He knows quite a lot about alchemy and other stuff.
But what about modern stuff?
"You know, I wanted to watch the play that goes by your name. I read it though! Very tragic indeed."
"What are you talking about?"
Yeah, yeah, he’s smart and stuff.
Really cool.
But his face when they tell him something he doesn’t know?!
Priceless.
Even if he does know, he’s more surprised on the fact that his s/o knows that type of stuff.
For example:
“Did you know that injecting 35% hydrogen peroxide can cause inflammation of the blood vessels at the injection site? The oxygen bubbles that block flood flow and lead to gas embolisms, leading to the destruction of red blood cells.”
“May I know why you know this information?”
Secretly likes it. I mean after all, his s/o isn’t just some pretty face.
Doesn’t stop him from teasing you though.
“Your knowledge won’t help you get away from me now will it? Hm, thought so. Now come here before I make you regret it.”
Will make a quiz full of questions regarding history out of spite.
They pass flawlessly. (Yeah, just with random facts from the internet. Leave me alone, I did that once.)
��You are proficient with your little data. Well, I can't expect less from my partner.”
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Text
Good Omens Fic Rec: in your own time
Aziraphale and Crowley grew up together as next-door neighbours on Hogback Lane, classmates at the local Catholic school, and inseparable best friends. By the age of eighteen, both were hopelessly in love with the other, despite the knowledge that they were doomed to live apart, as Crowley aimed to pursue university study in London and Aziraphale committed himself to remaining in Tadfield, dedicating his life to the Church. After almost twenty years spent away from his hometown, renowned botanist Crowley decides to come and visit Tadfield again at a moment's notice; the purpose of his visit is to speak at a Careers Day for the school he and Aziraphale, now a beloved priest and a frequent helper at the school, attended. The twenty-four hours that follow will change both of their lives for ever.
Length: 33,632 words
AO3 Rating: Explicit / Spice Level 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Best for: Mostly Safe in Public, After Dark, Human AU
Triggers: None
Read it here, fic by ineffabildaddy
*Minor Spoilers* I'm proud to say that I was the third hit count on this one and I had no idea it was being posted. This is a STUNNING priest AU, and this is going to be a long rec post.
Crowley and Aziraphale are estranged childhood friends here. Aziraphale was put on track to become a priest, and could not walk away. Crowley had to leave and find his own path. Personally, I love that plotline because it gives me a connection to their 6,000 years of friendship that I like to see revisited in Human AUs. We only get brief flashbacks to their youth, but it is enough to know how much they loved each other then. They go through life content, but incomplete. Each aware that their soulmate is out there, but reconnection feels impossible. That magic is not gone yet, and an unexpected reunion was just the spark they needed.
Crowley's portrayal here is especially soft and tender. His blend of anxiety and genuine confidence is as charming as ever, but it's his understanding and acceptance that truly shine. He never blames Aziraphale for the way things have unfolded. There's no punishment for the past from him, only unwavering support and love. He's so loving and safe, praising and doting on Aziraphale with pet names. I know Aziraphale is going to be cared for now.
Aziraphale's relationship to God and the Church was such a gorgeous journey. He was put on this Earth to do good and provide comfort to his community. Just like the canon though he'll need to separate out the Institution (Heaven/The Church) from God. His moral compass is so strong, "heavy, gilded, reliable". He just needed to learn to trust that voice. And not the voice of those who have forced him to conform to their will. The narrative never villainizes Aziraphale for staying with the church. He just needed some separation and someone to catch him. To be shown that love is holy. The church is not God, he will not be destroyed for acting on his love. I won't quote the whole thing but on Crowley's side, there is a stunning description of what he finds holy and worth of worship. That I am going to reread 1 million times. This story speaks to the late bloomers, the closeted, and the repressed—the queers who have hidden and suppressed their desires to conform to please others. It's for those whose lives seem to have slipped by, filled with missed opportunities and immobilizing fear. It holds us close and tells us, "It's never too late, my love." I often get stuck on "lost time", times I've felt I've wasted in my life. So reading, "It's never too late to do whatever it was you were always meant to do, as long as you do it when you're ready. It's never too late to look into the future, to conceive of a world which makes you grin with excitement and banish all dread from your mind." well, it made me emotional okay!!
Oh and it's hot as fuck. So there's also that. Like seriously, it'll creep up on you here. It'll be some gorgeous line about the human condition or whatever, and then the filthiest most delicious line imaginable! It was like an electric shock to me. The confessional scene had me weak in the knees!!!! I can't say enough times I love this story. The first several chapters are safe in public, but you will hit a point that it is not! Proceed at your own pleasure
Read it here, fic by ineffabildaddy
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buckysmith · 1 year
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Ramadan Special
NON BINARY READER
First disclaimer, I'm NOT a Muslim, so I use google and a lot of websites to write that headcanon, so I DEEPLY APOLOGIZE for ANY mistakes, please let me know if I did something wrong/incorrect and I'll correct it as fast as I can!
Why do I do an Ramadan special  when I'm not an Muslim? 'Cause it's only fair for my  dear friends from another religion to have the same treatment as my own religion, so cause I did an Christmas special, I'll do an Ramadan special as well.
So as a Christian I wish all my Muslim friends, a happy Ramadan, may all your duas come true this Ramadan!
Ramadan Mubarak! <3
Enjoy it D. and thank you so much for helping me with the intel <3
Oh and dear, if you're reading this, I was just as embarrassed as gromsko, much love  😂
Ghost:
- he knows that for you it is an incredibly important period, so it hurts him even more to leave you alone during this time because of his job
- if he is not in the country due to his job and has the time, he will call you just before iftar to either wish you a good evening or to be there via FaceTime
- if he is at home, he helps you during the day to prepare food for the evening so that you can have a nice time together with friends and family in the evening
- if you are not feeling well, it is not a problem for him to take over your household chores, because he has the highest respect for what you do for your faith and seeing you happy is the most important for him
- during ramadan he also keeps some distance physically so as not to tempt you
- he would even sleep in the guest room if you want it
- it is important for him not to do anything wrong and therefore he learns through you, other muslims and many books what he has to follow and what he is allowed to do and what not, which what  he can help you and so much more
- expect him to sit next to you, almost asleep just to eat suhoor at 3 AM with you
- he doesn’t give a something when you tell him that he can go to sleep early, he stays awake for you no matter what, no matter how tired he is
Soap
- as a Roman Catholic, he is familiar with fasting, however, it was a surprise to him how big the difference are
- he was a bit confused at the beginning, not knowing exactly what he could and could not do.
- when he found out that you were going to fast for a month and therefore abstain from water and food for a month, he was already panic-stricken that you would die because of the dehydration.
- however the fear subsided after you explained it to him and he felt really stupid
- if he is not at home during ramadan because of his job, he will make sure you are near your family/friends or that you can go to his family to break the fast
- he is a really good cook and his dishes are always very good, he doesn't like spicy food but he will cook anything for you, you just have to tell him what you want.
- if you are not feeling well during Ramadan, he will make sure that he can at least make your life more comfortable
- but expect him to avoid you physically like the plague itself
- he loves you too much and has too little self control to keep the relationship between you "normal" so he tries to have as little physical contact as possible, after all he doesn't want you to commit a sin or anything like that
- while you are fasting, he is also fasting while he is at home, he thinks it is unfair that only you are fasting and so he goes along with it
- but if he goes on a mission he apologizes a thousand times for not fasting as well.
Alejandro
- he is quite awkward at the beginning concerning the topic.
- México isn't a country with  many muslims and therefore he simply lacks the knowledge.
- however, it is important to him that you know that he supports you in every aspect of your life.
- accordingly he learns a lot about your religion to not look completely stupid
- but he was really awkward the first time
- he did not know what he is allowed to do and what not
- in his base there was always music playing, when he found out that you were not allowed to listen to music among other things, he made sure that as soon as you entered the base there was no music to be heard anywhere
- when he found out that you were in fact allowed to listen to music, he felt so stupid and you teased him about it endlessly
- he even arranged for you to have your own little room on the base, which looked towards Mecca, where you could pray in peace, if you ever spent a longer time on the base
- he also tried not to drink or eat in front of you, nor to say any swear words in that time
- he would also gladly do the cooking for you if it was too much for you and you needed time to rest or pray.
- he avoided physical touch with you like the plague, cause he knew himself and he wanted everything but to commit a sin
Rudy
- he is a little awkward at the beginning, in México there are not many Muslims he could have learned from, so it is new territory for him to learn more about you, your culture and religion.
- The first time he experienced Ramadan with you, he was confused why you didn't have breakfast with him in the morning as usual
- he then offered you something to drink, which you also declined
- and when you told him that you were not allowed to eat or drink anything for a month, he died inside.
- but he didn't make a face cause he didn't want  to hurt you and just nodded with a smile.
- when he went to work that day, the first person he talked to was Alejandro.
- he talked to his best friend about how unhealthy it was to not eat for a month, but he was way more worried about you not drinking anything
- three days without water was bad, but a month?! How did you survive that before?! He was sure that you must be a super  human to go a month without water.
- he came home that evening at the time you broke your fast, and was shocked to see so much delicious food
- that confused him, he thought you were not allowed to eat and drink anything?
- after you explained it to him he understood and at the same time was so incredibly relieved and ashamed
- he also keeps his distance during Ramadan and the most you might get is a kiss on the cheek if you don't allow him to give you more attention
- but as soon as Ramadan is over he makes up for all the attention he missed during that month.
Price:
- he has traveled a lot in his life, got to know many people and many religions and is accordingly enlightened
- especially because his "adopted daughter" Farah is muslim herself
- he tries to be with you during this time, but his job doesn't allow that most of the time, so he at least tries to call you or write you an sms
- if he can't make it at all, he records a video and sends it to you so that he can be there too
- but if he is at home, he does it for you out of solidarity, because he was once not allowed to eat solid food for two weeks and was so mad at everyone who ate in front of him
- he even gives up smoking, which is incredibly difficult for him, but nothing is too hard for him when it's for you
- he is also an incredibly good cook, so you are not alone in preparing food for your whole family and believe me, even your family loves his food
- the hardest thing for him though was to avoid physical contact, because his mind quickly darts to something else and he knew yours was too, so he kept his distance.... Unless you allowed him that certain something after sunset.
Laswell:
- She has several friends who are Muslims, so it's not new territory
- she has already celebrated iftar with all of them, helped her friends to cook and is really good at it
- when you cooked together for the first time during Ramadan, you always let her taste the food to know if there was anything missing in the spices
- for that you had cooked all the dishes you would cook during Ramadan before it so she knew what they should taste like
- she also tried to avoid eating or drinking in front of you and also stopped smoking in front of you
- for her the worst thing was not to have as much physical contact with you as before, but she knew how fast your mind was elsewhere and she did not want you to break your fast because of her
Valeria
- she did not care much for religion, neither for her own nor for any of the others
- for her religion was only the strongest means to oppress people, because it threatened consequences after death and put pressure on people during their lifetime
- she saw it as the perfect means to control people the way you wanted to
- however, she knew that you were faithful to your religion and that it was important to you, which she did not understand, but she accepted it for you
- she also made sure that you had a quiet place in her villa where you could pray in peace
- the principle of fasting was not really understandable to her but it did not make much difference to her since you usually ate something after sunset anyway
- although she is not a fan of religion, she still tries to be there for you and support you
- what really annoys her is that she has to stay physically at a distance
König
- a few of his old colleagues were Muslims, which is why he partly noticed it, but other religions did not interest him very much
- his religion was more than enough for him, he didn't need to know anything about others, after all his was already too much for him!
- However, this changes when you told him about your religion, explained it to him and why you are fasting and all the other things.
- he listens to you attentively and tries to remember as much of it as possible
- he has the highest respect for you that you manage not to drink or eat anything during the day for a month, he had tried it for five days
- the food had been an easy one, he had had many missions where he had no food for a long time, but drinking had been the problem for him
- he could not do without water during the day
- the worst thing for him was that when he was at home he couldn't have that much physical contact with you anymore
- but after Ramadan he will make up for all the physical contact he missed, so be prepared.
Makarov
- for him religion is only a means to legally oppress people to make them compliant without getting violent
- he likes the principle of religion itself, because in his opinion it makes people stick to something for centuries
- For him, it's the same thing he did to people
- when you told him that you were going to fast, he was confused and didn't really understand
- you had to explain it to him and you could see in his face that he was not the biggest fan of it
- according to him it was just impossible to know if you had time to eat at night, after all you lived with him
- however, when he saw that it hurt you the way he treated your religion, he made sure that you could fully concentrate on your religion during this time
- he tries to support you in his own way, which may not always be correct but he tries his best
Gromsko
- he himself had a few colleagues who were Muslims and with whom he celebrated iftar, but only when you lived with him did he really realize what it actually meant
- he made you a Ramadan calendar like you made him an Advent calendar at Christmas
- he filled it with things he knew you would like, different sweets and a lot of other stuff
- he also helped you with cooking or did all the housework when you were not feeling well
- he also helped you cook and prepare for breaking the fast
- he found out of his own that you were not allowed to listen to music, he made sure that there wasn’t music playing anywhere
- that confused you, cause he was always listing to some Taylor swift song and when you asked him about it he told you confused himself that you weren’t allowed to listen to music, which made you giggle
- you told him that you were allowed to listen to it, but that you had to avoid it a bit, to focus more on praying and your religion
- he was SOO embarrassed that he had misunderstood it
- he helped and supported you wherever he could
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nomilkinmyteaplease · 27 days
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The Terror's favourite things
[Verse 1]
Meat in a can and a good mid-day mass,
Wind in my face and sailors not dropping my spyglass,
Gardens full of blooming gaywings,
These are a few of my favorite things!
[Verse 2]
A good dose of whiskey and some well drawn maps 
All followed by good afternoon naps,
Platypus Pond-bound hot summer flings,
These are a few of my favorite things!
[Verse 3]
Catholic mass and some good Virginia ham, 
Of which I could eat a full kilogram,
Fresh uniform and putting on my g-strings,
These are a few of my favorite things!
[Verse 4]
Trauma-loaded experience of underwater diving
Feasting and on wine of coca thriving, 
Saying whatever to my mind springs,
These are a few of my favorite things!
[Verse 5]
Spending my time about everything complaining
Knowledge of scientific experiments feigning,
Every morning stretching my muscular hamstrings,
These are a few of my favorite things!
[Chorus- Everyone]
When the Tuunbag bites, when the scurvy strikes
When we’re feeling sad
We simply remember our favorite things
And then we don't feel so bad!
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monstersinthecosmos · 2 months
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Within our constant scholarship of "Is Marius really as atheistic as he thinks he is?" I submit this part from when he first meets Avicus and Mael -
"No, listen to me, both of you," [Avicus] said in a kindly rather deep voice. "Don't go on with this quarrel. However we came to the Dark Blood, either through lies or violence, it has made us immortal. Are we to be so ungrateful?" "I'm not ungrateful," I said, "but I owe my debt to fate, not to Mael."
I've been thinking recently about Anne's constant struggle with religion vs faith and I think we talk about this more with the Catholic characters because it comes out a bit more literally and their stories are often tangled into questions of Christian dogma but there's so much of this with Marius, as well, and the way he kinda-sorta treats Akasha like a goddess even though he denies it, and here he's so desperate to distance himself from Mael that he'd rather blame it on something magical like fate.
What I love about the dynamic between him and Mael, too, is that for Mael, who had perhaps seen PROOF of the Teskhamen's powers in different ways, it's never a question of "faith" for him because it's something he's seen and experienced and just accepts as fact. And he spends the entire year trying to convince Marius of this, and perhaps Marius's staunch atheism & reason are the only things getting him through that experience. But the moment HE meets Teskhamen he's also having his entire worldview shattered, and now he's the one who has seen it with his own eyes and knows that this is Something.
The concept of religion as a practice vs believing that there is Something is all over these books, and we've discussed many times how you can track it against Anne's off-again-on-again relationship with the church. So even from book to book it feels like the rules change, even the same character will go back and forth on it, or someone like Marius who, at times wants to participate in ritual or put reason aside, even though he denies it to himself, as he struggles with this knowledge that he witnessed something while he's unable to reconcile it with how much harm has come to him from religious people.
So anyway, I've been thinking about that a lot recently, and this part really stuck out to me.
I am not practicing religion in the way I worship Akasha. Mael also doesn't get credit for my destruction, it was fate.
Trauma can make you such a hypocrite sometimes.
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The terror 2018 & religious symbols in storytelling and character development
Religious themes are widely used in cinema mainly because religion is an inherent part of our culture. The story of the bible is told using tropes and storytelling devices that are still prevalent to this day. It can help the audience recognize themes, character archetypes and offers the storyteller/director an opportunity to play with those common ideas and reshape them to create a unique piece of art.
We will be looking at first season of The terror series and how that applies to it. I have not read the book on which it's based, so I'll be focusing on the show's version.
(Disclaimer, I was raised catholic but never went to catechism class, so my knowledge of the subject may be flawed as it dates back to my childhood. Also, I am awfully uneducated and don't know anything about other religions or how they may apply to any of this. Therefore I'll be sticking to what I know here, but you're welcome to add to this and enlighten me!)
Episode 6 "A Mercy"
This episode quite obviously relates to religion as Fitzjames names the event they organize after the Catholic season of Carnival. All the episodes after it also follow the events that come after Carnival in the catholic faith, fasting for 40 days and then the resurrection of Christ.
Fitzjames orders this Carnival to keep the crew's spirits up and to "prepare them for what's to come". The walk home and/or the Lent season.
In the catholic faith, Carnival is a celebration of worldly pleasures. People eat in abundance, expensive and unhealthy foods, lots of sweets and fat. This is a time of celebration, with dancing, music and playing games. And of course lots of alcohol consumption.
We see the event through Francis' eyes, still afflicted by withdrawal. There is a fever dream quality to the place. The abundance of everything, the time it must have taken the men to not only build the place but their costumes as well, it all feels exaggerated and far too elaborated for the resources available to them.
This furthers the idea of abundance that Carnival represents.
Francis congratulates them on their skills, their creativity, and their cooperation in building this place that he calls a 'temple'. Again, the word is significant in the sense that a temple is a church.
He goes on to tell the men what's awaiting them. A long walk, to get back home. After Carnival comes a season of fasting in the Catholic faith during which people atone for their overindulgence. They eat sparingly, no meats, sweets, dairy, and liquor and everything else they did at Carnival.
This fast lasts 40 days. A parallel can easily be made with the imminent starvation the men are about to go through.
One of the most important things that happen at this Carnival is its end. Dr. Stanley foresees these horrors awaiting them all and opts for mass murder, in his eyes it's the gentler end, 'a mercy'.
He attempts to save the men from this otherwise inevitable fate by setting himself on fire and walking out with his arms spread out like a burning cross.
There is a tradition at the end of Carnival where the Carnival King is burned, it represents the end of the festivities and the beginning of lent. It's a scapegoat for all this excess.
Also, before Carnival Kings were puppets or floats, they were an appointed person. During Carnival, this 'king' was allowed to speak freely, even against their own government and would not be punished or imprisoned for it afterwards. They were meant to advocate for the people and bring up potential issues. Where Crozier tries to be honest with the men and make them feel brave to face the task ahead, Dr. Stanly, knowing the truth about the cans, goes against that directly, to him there is no hope. He advocates for the crew through an extreme act, which looking back on by the end of the season can indeed look like the lesser of two evils.
The 40 days of fasting are a call back to the 40 years the Hebrews spent in the desert, before reaching the promised land. When looking at the visuals from the episodes following the Carnival, the landscape is strongly reminiscent of the desert. The rocky hills look just like sand dunes. It's just as barren, nothing grows and nothing lives there. Where one is hot, the other is cold.
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Dr. Goodsir as a Christ figure
First off, Goodsir's nature and personality can be compared to that of Jesus. He is a man who acts out of compassion and who believes in the goodness of human nature. He doesn't project racist beliefs onto the Netsilik people, like most of the crew does. He treats Silna as an equal and a friend, not a captive. He is the one who brings her her food, symbolically breaking bread.
He even continues to believe in the good of the British people despite the horrors he realizes they are responsible for, he claims this is not all his people are. His profession itself is reminiscent of Jesus, as they both heal the ill.
But his Christ-like metamorphosis really shines through in the latter half of the season.
As we established, the 40 days of fasting relate to the 40 years of wandering in the desert. However, it most importantly relates to the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and being tormented by Satan's temptations.
Many times in the 4 episodes that follow the Carnival we see Goodsir refusing to eat, because he knows of the cans. Later Hickey's group stops eating the cans as well, but they don't fast, they resort to cannibalism. Where satan tempts Jesus to turn the stones into bread, Hickey makes Goodsir turn men into food. Still, despite being hungrier than any of them because of his fast, Goodsir does not yield to the temptation Hickey lays in front of him.
Furthermore, the only way he can be coerced into participating in this horrible act and preparing the flesh to be eaten, is by being threatened that harm could befall Hodgson if he refuses.
Witnessing Dr. Stanley's suicide planted the idea for Dr. Goodsir's own early on, but what triggers it is Hodgson's story about attending papist mass.
He describes the vivid elated feeling of being purified through eating the body of Christ. In the Catholic faith Jesus died for our sins and by doing so, absolved us of our wrongdoings. By consuming him, we become a little more like him ourselves. If you attend Mass on Easter Sunday, the lights will be off and then turned on to symbolize the resurrection of Christ, then you are called to eat the wafer. It's Christ's body that you first consume after your fast, it gives you life again.
But even dying on the cross, Jesus continued to love people, even the ones who put him there and asked God to forgive them. Goodsir, captive in Hickey's camp and pushed to his limit, takes another route. He only lets Crozier know of the plan, therefore sentencing Hickey's followers along with him.
Hodgson told Goodsir that if he were a braver man he'd kill Hickey, implying not Hickey's group. Francis tells Hickey that he forgives everyone, except for him. Goodsir, however, is starting to embrace his former colleague's point of view, and opts for mass murder as well.
He tells Crozier that even through all of this he still finds beauty in the environment that surrounds them. As he bleeds to death, it is not loved ones that welcome him, like he had told David Young in the beginning, but symbols of nature.
In many ways, Goodsir represents an alternate path Jesus could easily have taken, one in which he lost his faith in the goodness of people and his faith in God.
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"Any God?"
Still, Goodsir is a martyr and makes the ultimate sacrifice, like Jesus did, dying for the sins of others. But by eating his flesh Hickey will not be washed of his sins but punished for them.
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inbabylontheywept · 10 months
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Kevin vs. Quantum Mechanics
This is an autobiographical piece. Names have been changed for anonymity, but it's otherwise left be. ---
The class's first suspicion of Kevin was that he had, somehow, cheated his way up to this course. He just seemed perpetually confused, and strangely antagonistic of the professor. The weirdest example of this was when he asked what an ion was (in a third year EE class?), and was informed that it referred to any positively or negatively charged particle. It would have been strange enough to ask, but his reply of "Either? That doesn't sound right" sealed him in as a well known character in the class of 19 people.
The real tipping point in our perception of him during a lecture where the professor mentioned practical uses for a neutron beam, and Kevin asked if a beam could be made out of some other neutral material. When asked "Like what?", he replied "An atom with all of its electrons removed." When we pointed out that the protons would make that abomination extremely positively charged, he just replied with "So what if we removed those too?" and then was baffled when we informed him that would just be neutrons.
That's high school level chemistry. Not knowing it was so incredibly strange that I felt like something was off, so I asked him if he'd like to grab lunch. He accepted, we chatted, and I finally began to get a sense of his origin story.
See, Kevin wasn't a junior/senior electrical engineer like the rest of us. Kevin was, in fact, three notable things: A business major, a sophomore, and a hardcore Catholic. All three of those are essential to understanding his scenario.
What had begun all of this was actually a conflict with Kevin and his roommate. Kevin frequently had his fundamental belief in Absolute Good, Absolute Bad, and Absolute Anything pushed back on by his roommate, who was in STEM. Said roommate kept invoking quantum mechanics as his proof against Absolute Knowledge. Kevin was tired of having something that he didn't understand thrown at his convictions, so he decided to take a quantum course to settle things once and for all.
Despite not having any of the pre-reqs.
He'd actually tried to take quantum for physicists first, but the school's physics department wouldn't let him. It's actually pretty strictly regulated, because it is a mandatory class for physics majors. However, because quantum is not mandatory for electrical engineers, there aren't really any built in requirements for the class. It's just assumed that nobody would actually try to take it until their third year because doing so would the be the mental equivalent to slamming your nuts in the car door. Just, pure suffering for no good reason.
Apparently, the counselors had tried to talk him out of it, but if Kevin was one thing, it was stubborn. He'd actually had to sign some papers basically saying "I was warned that this is incredibly stupid, but I refused to listen" in order to take the class.
He was actually pretty nice, if currently unaware of how bad he'd just fucked up. I paid for the lunch, wished him the best, and reported back to the class discord. We'd all been curious about this guy's story, but now that I had the truth, I could share it with the world.
Feelings were mixed. Some people thought he was going to drop out any minute now. Others thought that he wouldn't, be also that convincing him to drop now, while he still could, was the only ethical thing. Others figured that a policy of non-interference was best: The counselors couldn't dissuade him, and if we tried to do the same, he'd probably just think it was STEM elitism trying to guard its little clubhouse. He'd figure out how hard things were, or he'd fail. Either way, it would help him learn more about the world.
We wound up taking the approach of non-interference. If nothing else, understanding his origins gave us more patience when he asked bizarre questions. He wasn't trying to waste our time, he was just trying to cram three years of pre-reqs into a one semester course. He did get a little bit combative sometimes, and we could tell that he was really wracking his brain to try and find some sort of contradiction or error that he could use to bring the whole thing down, but he never could.
First test came by, and he bombed it. Completely unprepared. He'd taken Calc I, but he didn't know how to do integrals yet (that was Calc II). Worse, he was far past the drop date. I imagine most people in his shoes would've stopped struggling. They'd realize they were fucked and just let themselves fail, at least salvaging their other classes grades in the process. Why waste resources on an unwinnable battle?
Kevin never asked questions like that. If he was stupid enough to try it, he was stupid enough to finish it. God bless him.
He invited me to lunch after the test and said that the class was more fascinating than he'd ever imagined, but he didn't know if he'd be able to pass it. He asked if I could help, and I said...maybe. I brought the request to the discord, and from the eight people there I got three volunteers who admired this dork's tenacity. He was in over his head, miles beneath the surface, but his fighting spirit was fucking glorious. If he was willing to go down swinging, we were willing to bust our asses trying to get him caught up.
Some of the stuff was just extra homework we gave to the guy. We told him he needed to learn integrals, stat. We sent him some copies of basic software that can be used to teach the basics of linear circuit equations, and he practiced that game like it was HALO. Just, hours sunk into it. Absolutely godlike.
He was still scrabbling for air at just the surface level of the class, but he'd gone from abysmal failure to lingering on the boundary between life and death. Other people in the class started to learn about Kevin's origin story, and our little circle of four volunteer tutors grew to six. Every day, he had someone trying to help him either catch up in some way, or finish that week's homework. He'd gone from being seen as a nuisance that wasted class time to the underdog mascot.
He was getting twelve hours of personal tutoring a week, on top of three hours of classes, on top of six hours of office hours, on top of the coursework. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this kid was doing 40 hours a week just trying to pass this one single class.
Second test comes around and he gets a 60. He's ecstatic. We're ecstatic. Kid's too young to take out drinking so we just order a pizza and cheer like he just won gold at the Olympics.
After that second test, things hit another tipping point. With so much catch-up under his belt, he was able to focus a lot more on the actual material for the class. A borderline cinematic moment happened when I was trying to get ahead on the homework so that I could put more hours in on my senior project. Nobody else had finished it yet because it wasn't due for another week, so the specifics of the problem I was working on were still a mystery. I went to the professor's office hours and get some pointers, but he wasn't willing to give good hints when the HW wasn't due for another week or so. He said I still had time to think about it, which was true, but I wanted to be able to think about other things. Kevin had watched the whole conversation, waiting for his turn to ask the professor more simple questions, but when I left I got a text from him telling me to hop on zoom.
Kevin had finished it earlier, because Kevin started all of his homework the moment it was assigned. He needed to, in order to make sure that he could get it done on time. He'd finished it the day before, and was able to walk me through it.
From student, to teacher. I'm not exaggerating when I say that he probably saved me eight hours on that assignment. I could've kissed him.
A month or two later, we took the final. As soon as we were done, we six asked Kevin how he did. He was nervous, there was so much new material for him in this class that his retention hadn't been great. Us six were also a little stressed: We were going to pass the class, but the final was hard.
We waited for the results.
And waited. And waited.
Finally, the scores were posted as a table, curve included. From our class of 19 people, 4 withdrew within the deadline, 4 failed, 1 got a C, 8 got B's, and 2 got A's. We could see that the curve for a C was set at 59.2% overall.
We called Kevin. He was crying. End score, 59.2%. Teacher curved the C exactly to his score.
It was a week into winter break so we couldn't gather the forces around for a party like last time, but we were all losing our shit. Kevin was losing his shit. He couldn't believe how stupid he was to try this course, he couldn't believe that six people busted their ass just to make sure he didn't die, and he couldn't believe that the professor basically just passed him out of sheer effort alone.
He said it was the stupidest thing he'd ever done, and while I doubt that, it was outrageously stupid. And yet, I've never been so invested in a fellow student before. I'm prouder of Kevin's C than I am of my own B. I was walking on sunshine for weeks after that. In theory, my senior project was building a functioning washing machine, but in practice, in my heart, it was helping Kevin pass Intro to Quantum for Electrical Engineers.
(And as an epilogue: No, he did not renounce Catholicism and become an atheist like his roommate had hoped. He did walk out changed. I think that being that wrong about something, and realizing it, was a pivotal moment for him. It's hard to be dogmatic once you realize that a lifetime of being wrong feels exactly like a lifetime of being right, right up until the last two seconds of it.)
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nuthin-up-my-sleeve · 1 month
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I think I’ve officially pissed off my in laws. My niece announced several years ago that she was bisexual which set ablaze the grandparents and their Irish Catholic Ultra Conservative beliefs. They are true practitioners of the “don’t ask don’t tell and it will go away” attitude. Well Saturday while we were at an art show she informed her mom that she’s only dating women now and has no interest in men at all. Her mom and dad are at that juncture where they may not agree, but ya can’t stop her feelings even though they tried for years. The grandparents just say “it’s a phase and she’ll meet some nice Catholic boy and things will be different”. They kept talking shit about she’s too young to make those decisions in life without someone to guide her. WHAT???? Jen beat me to the blast. She asked who the fuck do they think they are to decided whether their grandchild who’s 22 is a lesbian or not. Who made you people the ultimate knowledge of how her life is to be? She roared to leave her the fuck alone and let her live HER life and to be happy! The conversation ended at that point which is perfect because I was going to say things that would really hurt some feeling because I don’t give a fuck. The last time it was discussed how they would tell her what she’ll do in life I reminded them this child carries dual citizenship and could easily leave and never come back so go to the corner of the room and fuck right off. She’s a great kid and I’m so very proud of her. And she always comes to Jen and I to talk about the deep subjects because she knows there’s no judgement and that makes us feel extremely proud. Those folks already hate me so just stay focused on me and leave the fucking grandchildren alone.
There that’s off my chest
Happy Monday!
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hofftrans · 2 months
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Getting real comfortable unfollowing and/or blocking blogs that only use political activism as a way to give themselves a feeling of like moral hierarchy. Like I think it's something we all struggle w to an extent, there's this long held concept of "I can only feel that I am good if I have someone bad to compare myself to" and in a terrifying world with so many terrible, terrible things going on in it I so understand the desire to be sure in the knowledge that you are a good person.
But part of kindness and community and compassion is being able to communicate patiently and empathetically with others, and so often I see posts or tags on this site that could be incredibly informative and create real change if they weren't written like somebody trying to get a mic drop moment instead of trying to get people to change and grow.
This is not to say minorities need to or should be polite to their oppressors, that's absolutely not the message of this post and I wanna clarify that to avoid a "love pancakes = hate waffles" situation.
The message of this post is about the amount of posts on here that bring up any issue in the world at all and phrase it as "not that any of you give a shit" or "and no one fucking cares" or "reblogging this is literally the least you can do" or "but I know you'll just ignore this so fuck you"
Like idk I just feel like we've accidentally recreated protestant values and catholic guilt over the idea of actual change, as well as the dangers involved in like "you should know to do the right thing because you're SCUM IF YOU DONT" instead of going "here's some education or a way to help" and then responding that way once someone refuses growth or change.
I'm going to try and practice what I preach here by explaining one of the reasons I think this is so dangerous without insisting you're a monster for not knowing: a large amount of the population suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, and one of the major ways ocd can present itself is ocpd or as my mates and I have come to call it "ethical ocd." Ethical ocd (in vague terms bc I'm not a doctor) is the extreme anxiety/fear/obsession over being morally wrong or a bad person and sufferers often feel the need to prove absolutely that they are good and can often feel the need to self harm or partake in dangerous behaviour if they make any mistakes or have an intrusive thought of a violent or hurtful nature. I know this because I've suffered from this a lot throughout my life, and as a teenager I spent many years away from tumblr due to how the moral hierarchy culture here was just like pouring fuel directly onto an open bonfire. This is obviously an issue many people don't know about and I get that, I feel no judgement towards them for that. I'm just pleading with people to consider whether their activism on here is coming purely from a place of actually wanting to help people improve their behaviour and improve the world we live in or if it comes from a much deeper need to feel sure and right in yourself, which again is not something that is a moral failure or makes you a monster, just something I really hope people can get help with before it spirals into a more and more harmful behaviour
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misericordevn · 3 months
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Hello! I just finished Volume One and I've been obsessed with it — you've probably seen my name on other forums and whatnot. Misericorde seems very well-researched when it comes to historical context, the daily life of the convent and Catholic tradition in general. How much time did you spend pouring over all that stuff before beginning the VN? How important do you think historical accuracy is in crafting a narrative like this one? Can't wait for Vol. 2!
I'm flattered it comes across that way! I am by no means a scholar or an expert. Some of it is just absorbed knowledge from other fiction writers; I'm obviously an Eco fan, I like the Cadafel novels, The Pillars of the Earth, etc etc. For specific research, I read a few pop-history books (Nuns by Sylvia Evangelisti, Everyday Life in Medieval London, The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England) and some academic papers on medieval women, religious traditions, etc etc. It's hard to talk about historical accuracy in a story that is ongoing, but I will freely admit up front that I don't think Misericorde is period accurate or even striving for period accuracy. What I focused on crafting was the feeling of a rich sense of time and place, which I think doing historical research helped greatly. There's a mixture of gesturing towards historical knowledge and accuracy--specific bits of historical knowledge, flavorful bits of language, political and social attitudes, etc--and bringing readers in with welcoming modern flair--the way dialogue is written, character archetypes, etc. I don't think this method is like, inherently better than any other method, but it's the one that works best for me, as I am not a scholar and I enjoy genre fiction just as much as I enjoy heady inaccessible historical literature.
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sneakerdoodle · 5 months
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I don't mean to be That Guy, but I just started reading some of your pinned essays (they're really good, by the way) and I noticed you referred to the camp in WKTD as Catholic, when I'm reasonably sure it's meant to be Protestant (what with the focus on "faith" over "good works" (as seen in Jupiter's speech in the Red ending, re: "it's only in your heart what matters") (also in this Protestant context "I wasn't born good" is very representative of Calvinist predestination ideas, which is often one of the most yikes parts about Protestantism), among other things)? I hope this doesn't come across as rude, I really do like your writing and analysis, I'm just hoping to inform and/or learn that actually you and a bunch of other people were all aware of some Catholic thing in the game that I missed and actually I was the wrong one.
hey, thank you for reaching out!! you found me out LOL i talk a big game but i actually have an extremely approximate understanding of either the Catholic or the Protestant churches - my only firsthand (and fairly limited) experience is with the Russian Orthodox church, and i think i just kinda absorbed this vague idea of Catholic Guilt™ from hearing other people throw the expression around, but I never got around to fully defining it to myself or figuring out the minute detail of the Catholic vs Protestant experience, and sometimes i do also make the mistake of kind of unconsciously lumping them together in my mind because to me both are equally culturally foreign
so yeah i'm very far from well-versed in the different branches of Christianity, which I hope does not discredit me too much as a Person With Many Words To Say about the Christian guilt complex and trauma and their exploration in media; i really really appreciate your insight, and i will add a note at the top of the essay clarifying this all in a bit :) would you be okay with me linking your ask for credit? and don't worry at all about seeming rude or anything like that, i'm honestly just really grateful you're engaging with my writing enough to reach out and talk to me about it! (glad you're enjoying yourself, too!) if i make any broad assumptions in any other piece of writing you can freely chuck that up to either a lack of thorough and conscious first-hand examination or my brain being a bit hurried and overexcited, so feel free to add any thoughts or corrections you believe would make the conversation more productive overall; but i do also appreciate being given enough credit for you to wonder if i have an actual Good Reason to think one thing over another. i would absolutely always invite any further conversation, and i hope it's not in any way disappointing that i'm not quite qualified to explore this specific one in more detail :) tyvm for sharing your knowledge, & have a good day!
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