Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

Anonymous asked: HE HAS A FACE LIKE A FRIEND

First off, I love how obscure this is.  Like, is this a prompt?  Is this a request for meta?  Is this just screaming?  Who knows!

But I’m just gonna assume it’s screaming, seeking screaming, mostly because I have to get a couple things off my chest.

*deep breath*

OKAY SO, Chirrut’s comment about the Force moving darkly around someone who’s about to kill, HERE IS MY QUESTION.  Chirrut whackin’ people with his stick looks pretty nonlethal–painful, certainly, but mostly not going to kill you.  (The bowcaster thing will kill you, and Chirrut will kill you, but the stick won’t kill you.)  On the other hand, you have Murder Master Baze, basically holding his own version of the Space OK Corral wherever he decides to open fire.

So does the Force move darkly around Baze?  Do long strips of thick, sticky darkness cling to him, where he used to glow bright with faith?  Does he do the bulk of the killing to protect Chirrut’s soul from them?

AND ALSO.  Cassian, God, Cassian Andor lives so much in the desperate need to know that his terrible deeds, all the things he wishes he could forget, are what the cause needs.  He has to know that his Rebellion needs him and needs his ruthlessness in order to absolve himself.

How much would it have meant to him, to have someone tell him outright that he doesn’t have the face of a killer?  How much would it have meant to him to know that even to these monks, he has the face of a friend?

Anonymous asked: The bar for 2017 is set so low a small person would lose limbo trying to go under it

My dude, forget limbo.  The bar for 2017 is on the floor of the sub-basement.  You need a backhoe to limbo under that shit.

Anonymous asked: Sooooo, for the sake of pain, can I have a Nat/Clint fic for the OTP song thing for "Castle of Glass" by Linkin Park

*cackling* All right, let’s play.  Trigger warning for…Red Room shit.  There’s more of this story, of course, after the events of the last scene, but I felt like this was a good place to end it.

Bring me home in a blinding dream,
Through the secrets that I have seen
Wash the sorrow from off my skin
And show me how to be whole again

‘Cause I’m only a crack in this castle of glass
Hardly anything there for you to see

She is very small when she learns what they mean, the words inscribed over the curve of her hipbone.  Not the words themselves—they’re not Russian, not even the right alphabet, her parents say they’re French and she wonders what it means.  But they are her soulmate, her parents say.  Someday, somewhere, someone will say them to her, and that will be the person the universe has created just for her.

She smiled and traces her fingers over the words, over and over, and wonders who it will be.

And then her life catches fire and burns to ash, and she is taken away by a tall man with a solemn face, and given a new name.

Natalia grows up, and learns, and fights, and bleeds.  

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Anonymous asked: Seriously fuck 2016... it took the "can this year get any worse?" and ran away with it like an egg-suckin dawg.

EVERY PART OF THIS YEAR HAS BEEN FOR SHIT.

@2017, IF WE DON’T DESCEND INTO WORLD WAR III, YOU’LL BE PASSING THE BAR.

GET FUCKED 2016.

Originally posted by tum-binha

Anonymous asked: Okay, so now you've got me thinking about Vision's conversation with the rabbi and whether he counts as a creation of God, and so now I have to ask- I feel like the closest analogue to Vision in Judaism would be a golem? Like, he doesn't fit all the criteria for one but I feel like he's closer to being a golem than to being anything else

YEAH OKAY SAME.

And like I am so curious about whether Vision would even qualify to convert, according to Judaic law.  I mean, okay, by and large I think Vision would work as a golem, with the Mind Stone in place of the shem (although admittedly his creation is a joint effort between Ultron and Tony Stark, so he’s half the direct creation of man and half the creation of a creation of man), but he does break the classic rule of being unable to speak, and he is sentient, which is generally a…questionable thing with regard to golems.  Because, like, the question of the line of life, and creation thereof.  But the Golem of Prague has some conflicting narratives that I suppose could allow some flexibility there maybe?  MY POINT IS that the Vision probably qualifies as a golem, but I don’t think most golems are self-aware enough to attempt to convert formally to Judaism, so???  It’s not like I have any precedent to work with here.  

There WAS a really solid post about this EXACT thing, but because I’m a GODDAMN IDIOT I forgot to reblog it and can’t find it again.  So if someone finds that for me and/or some other information about the exact logistics of a high-tech golem converting to Judaism and an ex-unknowing-weapon-of-Nazis rejoining the faith (given that Wanda is genuinely penitent and has pretty much been used, I feel like that might be a more easily ameliorated situation than otherwise), HIT ME UP.  Or, like, ask your neighborhood rabbi, because I live in a town too tiny to have a synagogue with a full-time rabbi and therefore I have never met them.

piggybunny12 asked: Oh my god that prompt fill broke meeeeee--his last line ;adkjfa;djkj;ljd Thank you! I think... :P

Eep, oh, wow, I’m so glad you liked it!  And I’m sorry…a little.  Not much.

piggybunny12 asked: EXR--Point of No Return from Phantom...or really anything from Phantom. I saw it last night and all the sudden it's sophomore year of high school again for me...

Not gonna lie, baby, I have not…actually seen Phantom of the Opera, but I googled the song and Tried. Yeah, yeah, I’m a heathen, I know. I am Trying.  And this.  Oh god. I make SUCH a rule about not writing smut except on specific request, so I just…stopped before it progressed to actual sex.  But rest assured that’s where this goes, and if you’re interested I’m glad to write it.

“Combeferre, make sure our weapons are prepared,” Enjolras was saying, the sort of rapid-fire rattle that commanded effortless attention.  He’d worked his way through every present member of Les Amis and then some by now, even little Gavroche getting instructions as they readied themselves for the next day’s march.  That just left…  “And where the hell is Grantaire?”

“Madame Houchloupe commandeered him as waitstaff,” Courfeyrac said with a wicked grin.

“What?”

“He means that she asked him to fetch more wine from the cellar, it’s crowded tonight,” Combeferre translated with a sigh.  “He’s probably still down there.”

“We are—this is not the moment for his antics,” Enjolras snapped, a scowl writing itself deeply into his features.  

“He’s been gone barely ten minutes,” Joly said, waving a hand.  “If you’re so thrice-blasted worried, go find him yourself.”

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Anonymous asked: hello! have you seen the post floating around abt the national museum of american jewish history in philly? they are apparently looking for queer jewish stories and i was not sure if it applied to you? the post is a bit old but anyway~

Okay, so, the not-so-complicated story of my religious history is: I was raised Jewish for years, but I converted before I reached the age of studying for my bat-mitzvah.  It’s still a really big part of my identity because…like…it just is, you know?  I still have teachers and rabbis to make proud, even though I’ve fallen out of touch with most of them and the others have since died.  So…like I don’t know if that post applies to me either, tbh.

Anonymous asked: Lurker again. First of all, I'm sorry I pissed you off. No, I absolutely did NOT realize that that would be the reaction. If I did I would have gladly STFU'd. I am sorry I added additional stress. As for why this particular post/explanation, I guess I've just read too many things about sexual assault recently and was in a bad mood myself (not excusing, just explaining). Again, I'm sorry I shat all over your day. I will refrain from commenting in future and remember to watch my tone elsewhere.

Hey, friend, I appreciate the apology.  I totally get where you’re coming from, I have days like that too, and I think it was really adult of you to acknowledge it, so major props, my friend.  Apology accepted, and I’d like to extend my own for getting cranky about it.  I hope your mood cycles up again, and don’t hang yourself out to dry for this, okay?  Like, for me.  It’s not on you that I reacted badly–I’ve just had…a long damn semester.  A long damn year if we’re all being honest, 2016 continues to kind of kick the shit out of me and everyone I love.  And you too, it sounds like!  So, like, don’t crucify yourself for a slip of temper, and make yourself a warm drink and here, have a video to improve your day.

Anonymous asked: Lurker here. I saw that post about "Baby It's Cold Outside." I still hate that song, because when you know the history, it just makes it more obvious why evil old farts think women are lying in the modern day about date rape. Because back in THEIR day, that was what consensual sex had to look like. TL,DR: Still hate this song.

Okay, look buddy, I’m not disagreeing with your ABSOLUTE PREROGATIVE to hate the song.  You 100% have the right to stand by that, and I would never disagree with it.  Your statement here is also completely accurate, and speaking as someone with a long ugly history of sexual assault (do you lurk enough to know that too, or are you just losing your temper?) I even agree with it.  It was this attitude that you had to at least claim that you’d resisted in order to protect your reputation (”At least I can to say that I tried”) even if the sex was consensual that feeds into our modern culture’s total denial of date rape claims.

That being said, the specific song “Baby It’s Cold Outside” is radically different if you evaluate it as a song written in “their day” as opposed to the way most people do it, as a song written in our day.  Culture is written in songs and stories, and this song speaks to a part of culture that is different today, that’s why it’s interesting.  I’m not saying you have to like the song, nor am I questioning any skeeved-out feelings you have toward it, but there is a lot to be said for knowing one’s history in order to progress forward rather than backward, socially speaking.  

Finally, may I ask why you felt the need to tell me specifically this thing?  Because if you do lurk so often on my blog, as your intro implies, I don’t know what in particular you hoped to convey other than making me a little ill-tempered, because regardless of how you meant it, this ask comes off as fairly rude.  And, as I have so frequently mentioned over the last few days, I am tired and stressed out about my family and generally exasperated with humanity.  Like.  You had to know I’d be inclined to take something like this a little poorly.