#but it was beautiful non the less

[theladysunami]

Amusing SVSSS AU thought I had:

Shen Qingqiu, the Luna Moth fae, with his Spider fae husband, Luo Binghe.

Everyone is super concerned about the spider thing, since spiders eat moths, and at least some arachnid fae are known to eat gossamer winged fae too.

Of course, Luo Binghe would never. He may trap his husband in webbing and bite him sometimes, but that’s for sexy purposes only.

As for how they met…

Luo Binghe is probably only half ‘Spidren’, the other half being some type of wingless ‘Pixie’ or ‘Elf’. He joined Shen Qingqiu’s ‘class’ as a presumed full blood pixie, and was often made fun of for his lack of wings (since the fairy ‘Cang Qiong’ equivalent is mostly home to ‘Sylphs’ and other gossamer winged fae). Shen Quingqiu dealt with the bullying matter by keeping him close and doting on him constantly.

Naturally some type of drama eventually happened revealing the whole spider thing, but Shen Qingqiu won’t hear of throwing out his precious boy! Look at these spider silk robes Binghe made for him. Isn’t he the sweetest! ♥

(Assume Huan Hua Palace is mostly wingless elf-like fae. Demons are fae with the attributes of various creepy crawlies: arachnids, other wingless arthropods, and some snakes too).

#BingQiu #Shen Qingqiu #Luo Binghe #SQQ #LBH #SVSSS #Scum Villain's Self Saving System #SVSSS Idea #Story Idea #* Is SQQ a transmigrator? Is there some deeper plot going on? #* Who knows! #* I only have the image of terrifying spider LBH spoiling his husband while everyone is convinced SQQ is about to die. #* Maybe SQH is some type of furry vaguely rodent-like fae while MBJ is a snake fae. Then folks can be concerned about that one too. #* LBH is some sort of fuzzy jumping spider that can still make webs. Thanks to his non spider half he’s less creepy than most spider fae. #* LQG probably has really beautiful beetle wings- and tough chitin patches on his skin.

[sibelin]

when you think about it, it makes sense that young girls are starting to buy into this vision of normalized conservative feminity as a transgressive and trendy new idea. i've lost myself in youtube shorts and tik tok compilations a few time and all of these are FILLED with mysoginistic, fatphobic, transphobic and racist bullshit everywhere. and they make it seems like they're the ones going against the norms, they're the rebels you know. i'm 29 so i can recognize the shitty sigma male influencer patterns anywhere but to a 14 years old teen? if that what they're given to watch, i'm afraid we should have seen it coming a long time ago.....

anyway i hate that girldinner trend lol

#we're literally going backwards #as a woman who's kinda feminine (but like...in a non conservative way) this shit also affects me sooo much #internet has made me so self conscisous that some days i can't even look in a mirror without finding myself ugly #despite all my friends telling me that i'm in no way ugly #the beauty standards is insane and girls are expected to eat less and to spend 100$ on makeup every month #and marry at 18 and have a kid at 22 #it's crazy. i really fear for the future 😬

[askshivanulegacy]

Fire department is already ON SITE. Taking no chances.

Also, this random review for a restaurant on the next square over is SENDING ME:

Godspeed, hay creature. Inauguration is over and all bets are off. ❤️ 🐐 🔥 🔥 🔥

#gavle goat #Christmas goat #gavlebocken #HAY CREATURE #could you get more non specific #and on a restaurant a whole block over no less #that the review was marked as helpful before i got there is beautiful. :') #my photos #godspeed hay creature

[dughole]

it girls used to have beautiful big noses.. bella hadid’s original face you would do so well if this was 1969 ❤️

#really its not that it was a more accepting time 4 non-eurocentric ideal beauty its jus tht plastic surgery was less reliable/common. but.

[queenlucythevaliant]

Why did God harden the Pharaoh’s? I’m in a Bible as Lit class and someone brought up “wouldn’t that be against free will,” and why did God let the Israelites stay it in slavery for so long. Why is God different in the Old Testament to the New Testament? I hope this doesn’t bother you, with all these questions

Okay, so there are several different questions here and I'm going to try to address them all. I'm sure I'll miss something somewhere, so other more knowledgeable friends feel free to add on. Follow-ups are also very much welcome.

First off, Bible as literature class! Yikes. I took a Bible as lit class for my English minor years ago and my experience was pretty much wall-to-wall frustration. It was mostly an exercise in coming up with the most transgressive reads on Scripture possible and that really upset me.

I hope that your experience is better than mine. However, assuming that the class is at a secular university, I'd still encourage you to be intentional about talking the things you cover in class over with knowledgeable Christians in your life. I certainly benefitted a lot from doing so, both in the sense that I got to vent a whole bunch and in that I got help contextualizing the secular perspectives within Christian scholarship.

That out of the way: The God of the Bible is the same in both the Old and New Testaments.

I do understand where you’re coming from. It’s not uncommon for people to find God kind of inscrutable in the OT when they're more used to reading the NT. I actually think that's a failure on the part of the contemporary church in the West; large swaths of the OT tend to be understudied among lay-Christians.

Systematic theology can help a lot here. I'm just going to hit a few really broad highlights, but I really can't recommend Wayne Grudem highly enough if you're interested in more in-depth reading. Lots of people start with Bible Doctrine, but my family happened to have a copy of his enormous Systematic Theology tome in the basement when I was in high school and I got a lot out of just poking through that a little at a time too. A few quick bullets though:

Across all the Biblical texts, God is love. He glories in kindness to his people, whether it's in the covenant with Abraham, the Exodus, the faithful ministry of the prophets, Christ's ministry/death/resurrection, or the promised coming of his kingdom.

God is holy; he gives the Law to the Israelites so that they can approach his holiness without fearing for their lives and he sent Jesus so that we can do the same. Both Isaiah and Peter react with fear and awe in the face of God's holiness.

God is just. By virtue of his holiness, he cannot allow sin to go unpunished. As modern westerners, we often chafe against this but has any of us experienced justice that was actually pure? Justice is a form of faithfulness, and the same God who sent his people into exile poured out his wrath on his own son in our place. He has promised that one day, every evil will face his perfect justice.

God is faithful. He keeps his Covenant with Abraham even unto the cross. In the OT he is faithful husband to an adulterous people. In the NT he tells us that when we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

Lots of other characteristics but this answer is going to be long enough as it is. The only way to get a real sense for the continuity within the Bible is to read the whole Bible with an eye towards the continuity.

The reason that God is more approachable in the NT than the Old is that he became human. In the Incarnation, all of that holiness and justice and faithfulness and love that was God came to earth in our perfect likeness so that he could live beside us and die for us. God is certainly easier to approach in light of Christ's work, but he is utterly the same as he ever was. Read the Transfiguration and tell me that isn’t the God of Mount Sinai. Read John 1 and tell me it doesn’t remind you of the end of Job. Read the Gospels, Hebrews, and Revelation and play spot-the-OT-parallel. It's beautiful.

Why did God leave his people in slavery for so long? You could ask the same question about the Babylonian captivity and even about why Jesus waits to return and finally defeat Death. Why does he wait? Why let his people suffer?

Well. God is sovereign and he only permits evil to the extent that it ultimately accomplishes the very opposite of what it intends. Because the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, the Exodus was able to occur. The Exodus glorified God in extraordinary fashion, both among his own people and to the peoples of the ancient world. It was also a necessary type and precursor to Jesus's work on the cross. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that redemptive history rests on God's work in the Exodus, which is itself contingent on a period of slavery in Egypt.

“How long, O Lord” and “Come Lord Jesus” are the same sentiment in different words. We are still in exile, even now. We are chronologically exiled from the place where we belong, the New Jerusalem, and we mourn because we live in a fallen world in which sin and death can still hurt us. We can ask, just as the Prophets once asked, why God waits to vanquish the Enemy, extract suffering from the world, and restore our years that the locusts have eaten. And in each case (the slaves in Egypt, the Babylonian captivity, and the period of waiting for Jesus to return), the answer is that God does not fix it yet because He is doing something bigger!

Regarding Pharaoh's heart: this is basically a question of human nature. The easiest way that I can articulate it off the top of my head is using Augustine's fourfold state of man:

Prior to the fall, man was able either to sin or not to sin (posse peccare, posse non peccare)

The natural state of man after the fall is one in which he is unable not to sin (non posse non peccare). This was Pharaoh's state.

Following the work of Christ, regenerate man is able not to sin (posse non peccare)

In eternity, glorified man will be unable to sin (non posse peccare)

When we talk about man's will, we must acknowledge that our wills are subject to our nature. In other words, Pharaoh was a natural, fallen man. His nature was inherently sinful and his heart inherently hard.

What we've got here is sort of a "Jacob I have loved but Esau I have hated" situation. Pharaoh, in his natural state, had a hard heart and a natural enmity with God. God did not intervene to give him a heart of flesh. My people I have loved, but Pharaoh I have hated.

Not a perfect parallel, but I think it serves its purpose. The point is that God's sovereignty isn't in conflict with man's will, since our wills are a function of our natures. Man behaves however his nature inclines him to behave at any given time. We call this free will; however, God is entirely sovereign over all of it.

This is definitely a long, messy answer, but like I said, feel free to continue the conversation. I've got some biochem to work on, but I'm always happy to talk theology :)

#Secular Bible as lit classes really are a quagmire #mine was basically where I decided that I straight up do not care what non-Christians have to say about the Bible #(in the scholarship sense I mean) #if you don't have skin in the game then i couldn't care less what you think on authorship/characterization in genesis/weird subversive take #on ruth/Job being internally inconsistent/God's gender/the purpose of the parables/whatever other nonsense #sigh #and like. i had a good theological grounding to be able to push back on the BS nine times out of ten #my prof actually called me the most engaged student she'd ever taught which was pretty hilarious #but i was FURIOUS on behalf of the other Christians in the class who by and large had relatively shallow foundations as far as i could tell #like one girl was seriously doubting whether God was good when we did the prophets because of the way it was presented #i went to the prof's office hours one time to pick a fight (long story) and she told me that she's had numerous students over the years #that renounced their faith after taking her class #i spent the whole semester praying for all the names on the class roster #ugh i could rant about that class forever #meanwhile! no discussion of the ACTUAL literary merits of the Bible which are awesome! #the poetry the reoccurring motifs the deft use of metaphor the beautiful elevation of theology to art #i wanted to talk about that! #and that wasn't what the class was about #this was years ago and i'm still mad. sorry #maybe that'll be a separate post one of these days #ask me hard questions #only thou art holy

[vullcanica]

WHAT KIND OF ART WOULD SOMEONE MAKE ABOUT YOU?

paintings

everything you do is a work of art. you are beautiful without even trying, simply lounging around looks like you’re posing and waiting for someone to sketch you. you come off as light and easy but you are often misunderstood. people don’t tend to see you for who you really are, and focus too much on how effortlessly you appear to navigate the world. there's some kind of darkness behind your eyes that only some can see under all the layers of paint.

Tagged by: @vilestblood kiss !!

Tagging: @dionidai (vratis), @vhgr (muse of choice), @s4ints (todd), @demonstigma

#𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 ‒ avita ║ DASH GAMES #oh this is actually spot on in a genuinely non-shallow way i love it #some.. results on this one do be iffy but this one slaps #she really does have an effortlessness elegance and gentility about her that is so so very hard-earned #and absolutely impossible to tell as much. #nor does she advertise that about herself tbh. 'hi i died and had to relearn to exist in an ill-fitting body' is a lvl 1000 friendship fact #but the assumption that she was born as 'perfect' as she's made herself appear is equal parts upper hand and underestimation #going from hardly able to navigate life itself to moving swiftly through the world is less a talent and more a journey #oh and yes. femininity/white/light/pale colors/beauty = / = goodness.

[ghostoffuturespast]

A sheaf of sweetgrass, bound at the end and divided into thirds, is ready to braid. In braiding sweetgrass-so that it is smooth, glossy, and worthy of the gift-a certain amount of tension is needed. As any little girl with tight braids will tell you, you have to pull a bit. Of course you can do it yourself-by tying one end to a chair, or by holding it in your teeth and braiding backward away from yourself-but the sweetest way is to have someone else hold the end so that you pull gently against each other, all the while leaning in, head to head, chatting and laughing, watching each other's hands, one holding steady while the other shifts the slim bundles over one another, each in its turn. Linked by sweetgrass, there is reciprocity between you, linked by sweetgrass, the holder as vital as the braider. The braid becomes finer and thinner as you near the end, until you're braiding individual blades of grass, and then you tie it off. Will you hold the end of the bundle while I braid? Hands joined by grass, can we bend our heads together and make a braid to honor the earth? And then I'll hold it for you, while you braid, too.

All flourishing is mutual.

Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer

#braiding sweetgrass #robin wall kimmerer #quotes #reciprocity #this book would probably be classified as non-fiction #but no book has been so beautiful as to make me almost cry less than five pages in #Indigenous #nature #lord this book #made it a few more chapters in and almost started crying in the front office #gggggg #also i just cried over my breakfast thinking about prairie dogs #i'm fine

[wordswithaven]

Aberration or rarity?

there is a beehive in my chest,

a fluttery of letters, words and phrases in my head,

drums repeating the sentence to be said,

but my mouth won’t obey.

...

im a silent observer to the world,

it moves around me,

i can see it,

i can touch it,

i can hear it,

i can smell it,

i can perceive it,

but do others see me?

am i a ghost?

a figment of their imagination? or mine?

...

im in a vacuum

i could scream

i could whisper

the void pulling away the air is all the same

...

or

...

perhaps i am the vacuum,

harbourer of unspoken thoughts,

treasurer of secrets,

archive of observations,

...

my mask is in the closet,

i am fragile, exposed,

unsafe,

in danger or dangerous,

maybe both.

...

no one can read me:

i seem numb, a corpse, a ghost

but i am alive, so alive

i am buzzing,

my inner world more vivid, more complex, more real than this one can ever hope to be.

...

incongruent, distorted, a quintessential contradiction

i am an enigma in this world

my mind holds many mysteries and secrets of theirs,

memories of a visitor, a silent observer, hidden in plain sight, forgotten at times

but perhaps the greatest mystery is not the ones i remember but the one I am.

...

maybe i am

a shell

a mask

a wisp of smoke

a ghost

an alien

a danger to be eradicated

a square that still needs to be made a circle.

...

maybe, maybe not,

perhaps instead i am

a constellation

a marvel

a rarity

a sparkle

a light

a whalien of hertz 52

beautiful just like them.

...

if they are the milky way then i am NGC 1519,

simply orbiting around them,

at first thought to be close,

now calculated to be further than thought,

but still here i am

i continue orbiting,

observing,

and now I guess,

being observed too,

not many people know about dwarf galaxies but we exist,

and we will continue to exist for as long as gravity holds true,

not even dark energy can pull us away so why should you?

...

i am still a child,

a child who cannot speak,

sometimes I can,

sometimes I can’t,

right now the latter is true.

...

i will keep growing,

and soon i will be an adult,

the neurons in my brain will still be connected the same way,

firing energy the same way,

my code, my synapses, my pathways they’re different from yours,

i am more powerful in ways,

weaker in others.

...

but i am still whole,

whether i can utter words or not,

whether i need routine or not,

whether i can read your body language or not,

whether i express emotions or not,

whether i stim or not,

...

i am a whole person,

and i am different,

and i belong in this world just as much as you.

#neurodivergent #actually autistic #mental health #non verbal #semi verbal #selective mutism #different not less #beauty in neurodiversity #neurodiversity #thoughts #you are not alone #you are beautiful #poetry #poets of tumblr #original poem #original writing #original #autistic pride #autistic poetry

[covenofthearticulate]

god, I want to share pictures of WHY i haven’t been here/been able to read anyone’s kink week fics, but it is, in fact, illegal 😡

#we had our final performance for our THIRD summer camp today #on top of costume pieces i also did makeup and these kids looked SO COOL #idek how to describe it but just. SO BEAUTIFUL AND CREEPY #the show was an original piece inspired by the rime of the ancient mariner so they were all super spooky and dead LMAO #we had our professional photographer take some GORGEOUS PHOTOTS as well #but alas sharing photos of minors in non-authorized non-marketing places is not cool #ANYWAY one more week with one more camp and then i’m FREEEEEEEE #i mean not free but. back to my regular marketing job with blessedly less in-person hours 😅 #i have so much to catch up on i’m overwhelmed LMAO

[taichissu]

as a bilingual i will never get over stories told from a non-x-language-speaker's point of view in which the narrator describes the sound and emotion of the language spoken by other characters solely because they do not understand what they are saying; i feel like there's something so human and fragile about seeing so much in a conversation you can't even understand

#idk if it even makes sense #just #idk finding elementary beauty in how the language sounds to a non-speaker #seeing that people can find beauty in foreign languages makes me less insecure you know? #idk idk

[mass4ubd]

Beauty is when you can appreciate yourself. When you love yourself, that’s when you’re most beautiful

#The Aesthetica Cosmetics Beauty Sponge is the only blending sponge applicator tool for powder #cream and liquid makeup you'll ever need. This makeup sponge provides a flawless #edge-less application to help you look your best #every day #and is perfect for contouring with the Aesthetica Cosmetics Cream Contour Kit. #The rounded end of the make up sponge is great for blending on the cheeks #while the precision of the sponge's tip makes covering minor imperfections easy. Use the flat edge around the nose and eyes for contouring #to get an enhanced #beautiful and smooth complexion that appears airbrushed flawless. #Made from non-latex foam and 100% Vegan and Cruelty free. This makeup sponge is simple to use and easy to clean #making it a great choice from amateurs to pros. It's easy to optimize your beauty routine by using this multi-functional beauty sponge. #Edge-less design for maximum and seamless coverage. Can be used with foundation #cream blush #primers #powders and other make up products. The Aesthetica Cosmetics Makeup Sponge is Easy to clean with mild soap and water. #Can be used wet or dry. Dab the make up sponge gently in the makeup and bounce it along your skin for a natural #flawless look. Minimal absorption with maximum coverage and made to last!

[irulanpaul]

Reminder that if your local villain/antivillain/antihero/whatever doesn't go "e quel mio cuore d'inverno è un fiore di primavera / che brucia dentro l'inferno come se fosse di cera / sei tu che soffi sul fuoco, tu bella bocca straniera? / ti spio, ti voglio, ti invoco / io sono niente e tu vera*" then I don't want it, bye bye

#i mean. not really lol #but if he isn't *shown* torturing himself as much as she does (if we're talking about a het romance) i couldn't care less #idk maybe my standards are just weird or too high #but oh lord i've seen some cringe worthy stuff around and... nope. nope nope nope #and yes if it wasn't already painfully obvious #it's been 2 days and i'm listening to the nddp italian cast recording on a loop #i'm sorry french is a ridiculously beautiful language but this is the superior version <3 #who else does it like vittorio matteucci as frollo? 😍😍 #also: 'con una mano toccami torturami con l'altra / sei più di dio / io non più io #con te sprofonderò / diviso mai / con te l'inferno è il paradiso [...] la tua anima è il mio fiato' #i mean. hello???? 😳😳😳😳😳 #val speaks #txt

[rainbowvamp]

I'm so sorry, that is one shitty friend you've got there. You deserve better ones <3

thank you <3

my therapist and i spent my entire last session talking about this. nothing was resolved. i still blame myself. i’m not even a girl but i’m afab and fem-presenting so i guess i’m not allowed to have friends who are men unless they are single like pringles :)

(no one has ever eaten a single pringle in all of history but i digress)

the thing is i would never fucking do this to any of my friends let alone someone i have known and loved for 8 fucking years. like, how do you throw away an 8 year relationship for a 6 month relationship just because one is platonic? i do not understand?

i would ask if this is an allo thing except i know it’s not an allo thing. this is probably a “new girlfriend is insecure” thing and that is dangerous for him but i’m so hurt that i’m finding it really hard to care.

anyway. thank you for sending this <3 and hopefully this vent-y response doesn’t make you uncomfortable 💗

#beauty is art and art is pain and i am sure fucking hurted #petition to change the phrase to less single than a pringle #and for pringles to be the new spokesperson for non-monogamy because no one stops at two pringles why would you do that? #joking because i’m about to cry? yeah. yeah i am #fuck

[aeide-thea]

most problematic fact abt me is that my love for cats vs dogs is basically That One Shitty Bisexual Stereotype abt women vs men :/

#'pretty much literally all cats. a very small subset of non-slobbery dogs once i get to know them personally.' #(also like. since we are on tumblr i should probably clarify: if you are bisexual and mostly attracted to women i have no beef with that.) #(what i have beef with is the way this stereotype really often gets used to be like 'yeah most men are ugly lol' and like. fuck that.) #(like (a) can we not make Woman the Beauty Gender (b) have you considered women are often more intentional abt how they present themselves #because of precisely the expectations of women to be beautiful that you're reinforcing by talking abt them this way) #((c) a lot more men are good-looking in their own ways than your very narrow paradigm has room for) #(for the record i'm bisexual. i generally use other language abt it for personal reasons ppl often no-true-bisexual me about. but i am.) #ANYWAY. none of this deeply-tumblr discourse nonsense makes what i originally said abt cats vs dogs any less true though.

[mouseoho]

on the one hand im glad that TAN's DREAM & DEURIM album's physical release is small + mainly digital contents since it's more environmentally friendly, but on the other hand i have a CD player and playing CDs is my passion and i literally only started buying kpop albums so i could use the CDs in them so like. im a little bit devastated that i'll never be able to play Beautiful Lie on my CD player. its not like its one of my favourite songs this year or anything haha

#kpop #tan #tan kpop #silversouris #warning i go on a bit of tangent in the tags #like i'm glad that kpop companies are - even if its only slightly - trying to be more sustainable/eco by releasing digital/platform vers #but man CDs are a big part of an album #like. currently CDs are THE main physical form of music if that makes sense #LPs are fancy/expensive and cassettes are just... outdated/less used #so when people buy an album #which is to me a physical copy of the music (with bonus stuff ofc since its kpop) they should be able to get a CD if they want/choose #also releasing a photobook + CD + bulky ver and then a “digital”/eco-friendly/CDless ver still isnt very environmentally friendly #bc the reason kpop albums are so un-eco friendly is bc fans will mass-buy them - mainly bc of fansigns #and kpop companies who release a digital ver and a normal ver will host fansigns for the normal ver only iirc #so like.... kpop fans are still incentivised to buy the non-eco friendly ver #the fans who would maybe only buy one or two copies (depending on the amount of vers) will probably buy the digital ver instead #but the fans who buy a TON (im thinking 5 - 12 or more) in order to get into one fansign won't buy the digital ver bc... #that wont get them into a fansign #ahhhh sorry for the tangent i just wish i had a dream & deurim CD even if it only has two songs. beautiful lie is just that good #i really like CDs so i dont want it to STOP #but i do agree that the bulk buying of bulky albums is unsustainable and should be addressed #but its not really working rn... #anyway beautiful lie was SOTY