#epistle to no one

[inkymoonbunny]

Astarion x Tav Fic Recs

These are just some of my favorites! <3 Mix of during game and AUs

Epistles of Saints & Sinners @elegantduelliste - Soulmate Marks AU during game. Astarion recognizes Tav’s soulmate mark, it matches his own, but he's not going to tell her that; he can't have a soulmate, it's just one more thing Cazador has stolen from him. Tav is just as drawn to Astarion, but her own history has left her guarded and wary of being vulnerable. Elle’s writing of the push and pull of their relationship is breathtaking and heart-wrenching. Matching a bard Tav, Elle's prose takes on a lyrical quality and her use of imagery is unparalleled. 

The House of Astarion by Throckmorton420 - Labyrinth AU post-Elderbrain. Ascended Astarion lost interest in conquering Faerun once he came across the Labyrinth, it's much more his style anyway. Stealing Tav’s violin, he offers her a deal: solve his Labyrinth and he'll return her violin and grant her a wish. Realizing this is her opportunity to reconnect to the Weave, Tav agrees. Did I mention goostarion? Because there's goostarion! This fic is filled with mischief, whimsy, and so much heart. 

Fools' Work @semper-draca - Pre-Tadpole AU. Cazador has sent his spawn after a mysterious box and luckily for Astarion, his latest target happens to have a lead. It should be easy to seduce her and steal the prize! Too bad she’s not as naive as Astarion believes. This mercenary Tav is perceptive and delightfully unhinged that makes her a great matchup for a scheming Astarion. 

When the Dawn Breaks… @harcourtholmesii - set during game. Before Astarion was turned, he ignored his family’s disapproval of a Drow lover. Two hundred years later, Lavender has found the lover she grieved and believed dead. Astarion brushes away her questions but still sweeps her off her feet. He can’t believe his luck in finding a target that presumably knows him, one easy to lure back when he so desperately needs to keep in good graces with his master. 

Until You @bloodinwine - Post-Elderbrain with modern world AU flavor. Effy thought Astarion needed a friend more than a lover, so now here they are as roommates and definitely not hopelessly in love pining after one another. Effy struggles to fight her way free of self-destructive tendencies and be the person Astarion needs her to be. This Tav is a loveable hot mess! I have never wanted to take a character by the shoulders and shake them so badly, thank you June for spinning Effy into the world. 

Lacunae @karinamay - Series set during game. Tav was once Astarion’s target, but she slipped away. Upon meeting after the Nautiloid crash, she remembers but Astarion does not. This is the one that inspired me to start writing again. It’s sweet and heartbreaking and deliciously spicy!

Pour One Out @aevallare - Modern AU/1000 years post-Elderbrain. A spinoff from the much loved and fandom favorite Kindred featuring an anxious Auri that doesn't remember her past life and a tailor Astarion that's in awe of finding his love again. This is an Astarion that's had centuries to heal from his ordeal with Cazador, one that's been able to flourish in freedom. Astarion gets his chance to be a hero for Auri this time around. Aevallare's characterization of Astarion is absolutely unmatched.

All these fics are ongoing so you must be patient, but DO give them a read and the authors some love/kudos/comments!

#fic recs #bg3 astarion #astarion x tav #astarion x oc #fanfic #bg3 #astarion #baldur’s gate 3 #bg3 fanfiction #bg3 fanfic #fanfic rec #epistles of saints and sinners #The House of Astarion #Fools' Work #When the Dawn Breaks... #Until You #Lacunae #pour one out

[peachieflame]

Fav zukka fic of all time?

Ahhhh this is really hard. I haven't really read that many but I have like 4 or 5 that I constantly reread...

If I had to name an absolute favorite it's Will We Last the Night by CSHfic, VSfic !! Literally every zukka fan needs to read this fic. It's incredibly well written and paced. Personally I also think the characterization is so spot on like yeah this is all stuff Sokka would say. I also in general love long fics that flesh out how Sokka and Zuko come from enemies to friends and then bfs

My favorite scene has to be this one btw:

Azula scowled and moved to take a bending stance, but before she could the ground lurched violently. The force nearly threw Sokka to his knees. Zuko grabbed his arm to steady him as the conning tower plummeted several feet downward, the lift losing pressure as the steam escaped. 

“Jump,” Sokka said, and Zuko was thick-headed, impulsive, and absolutely perfect, so he didn’t even hesitate, shoving Sokka backwards before Azula could even register the word.

They hit the deck hard, and it shuddered terrifyingly under their weight. He nearly lost his footing again, and somehow managed to keep it between Zuko’s vice-like grip on his arm and the adrenaline-fueled thundering of his heart.

I really want to draw out a lot of scenes from this fic but I have so little time realistically ! </3 Hopefully I get to it soon.

#answered ask #anon ask #this one and epistles by Lady of the flowers on AO3 are really tied idk... #I love long fics that let the slow burn and relationship really develop know

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

The Spirit of Christian Love

1 The elder, to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not I only, but also all those who know the truth; 2 for the truth's sake, which remains in us, and it will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

4 I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, even as we have been commanded by the Father. 5 And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I wrote to you a new commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. 6 This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, even as you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose the things which we have accomplished, but that you receive a full reward. 9 Whoever goes on and does not remain in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. He who remains in the teaching, the same has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you, and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not welcome him, 11 for he who welcomes him participates in his evil works.

12 Having many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you, and to speak face to face, that our joy may be made full.

13 The children of your chosen sister greet you. — 2 John 1 | New Heart English Bible (NHEB) The New Heart English Bible is in the public domain. Cross References: Deuteronomy 13:4; 1 Kings 13:16; Matthew 5:47; Mark 13:9; John 1:14; John 3:29; John 7:16; John 8:31-32; John 14:16; John 13:34-35; John 14:15; John 15:12; Acts 11:30; Acts 15:23; Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 3:8; 1 Corinthians 13:6; Ephesians 5:11; 1 Timothy 1:2; 1 Timothy 5:22; 2 Peter 1:12; 1 John 1:4; 1 John 2:18-19; 1 John 2:23-24; 3 John 1:3

#John's joy #walking in truth #love one another #God's love #example #imitate #warning #false teachers #dealing with false teachers #2 John 1 #The Epistle of Second John #New Testament #NHEB #New Heart English Bible

[honey-gaze]

love letter to letters!

#i will be ur penpal bb! #shout-out to @greenwhistler for being one of my sweet letter friends btw #I've got almost every letter I've ever gotten in this sweet lil box i dug out of my grandmas art shed #when she died i found a big bag of all the letters i sent her throughout my childhood and it is! a treasure #anyway slow correspondence 5eva #epistles #penpalin' around #mary ruefle's madness rack & honey #samgaze

[notebooks-and-laptops]

#izzy hands #izzy #ofmd #blackhands #currently on a kick of applying religious language to izzy #anyway #first one is from richard silken #second is from the Epistle to the Romans in the New Testament

[twosides--samecoin]

“Mother, I keep having the same dream. I dream that I’m growing tall as a poplar. I pierce through the roof of the balcony and through that of the floor above, the fifteenth floor, the sixteenth floor, shooting up through concrete and reinforcing rods until I break through the roof at the very top. Flowers like white larvae wriggle in to blossom at my tallest extremities. My trachea sucks up clear water, so taut it seems it will burst, my chest thrusts up to the sky and I strain to stretch out each branching limb. This is how I escape from this flat. Every night, mother, every night the same dream.”

Han Kang, The Fruit of My Woman

#by the end of writing most fic chapters I find a quote I like to go at the beginning ahead of my own text #mark laidlaw's epistle 3. lyrics from funny girl. latin by way of phormio. sometimes has fic meaning sometimes it's just for me. often both #but this one has taken on some irony because I just escaped trap house hell apt building :') #han kang #the fruit of my woman #long time running

[mourning-again-in-america]

why can't the indo-europeans just stay in one place 😩

#actually i was unaware of galatia or its inhabitants #i was vaguely aware of the epistle to the galatians but i thought it was to the *galicians* of spain #(galicia is also a confusing region name given the existence of one in spain and one in eastern europe; I'm much more familiar with the #latter given its important role in Austro-Russian strategy in the board game Diplomacy

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

comments sections on my fanfics on AO3 are a case study in linguistic mirroring

#i just replied to three comments in three wildly different ways bc the tone of each was very different #one was a ''thank you for sharing!'' and i said ''thanks for commenting I'm glad you like it!'' #another was just a bunch of hesrt emojis so i just went ''!!!!!!!!'' back at them #and the third was a small epistle from a tumblr mutual shrieking happily at me so i ranted (affectionate) right back #Lu rambles

[irish-urn]

So I don't know which moment in Extraction made you laugh the hardest, but I'll tell you which two lines/parts made me laugh the most.

First: “Yes, I’m here to pick you up.”

He tilts his chin down, looks up at her through his lashes and slurs, “Baby, you can pick me up anytime.”

Second: “Because you’re not in love with me.”

He frowns very deeply. “Am I stupid?”

UGH YES.

It was the second one: I cannot stop laughing over it. Because he is, he's very stupid. Gosh I love him.

BUT CAN YOU IMAGINE Michael Seater doing that entire scene? It would be gold; Emmy Award winning even. Gosh, him slurring and trying to wink at Ashley... Ugh. It'd be so funny. I should write scripts.

(I kid, I kid. ...or do I?)

AND NOW, FOR YOUR SNIPPET:

“Are they, like… sexy penpals?”

“I have no idea. I mean, no one wants to think about their parents having sex—”

“Of course not.”

“But if anyone would benefit from getting laid, it would be my mom.”

“Der-ek!”

“I’m just saying!”

“...honestly, I think Dad could stand to relax too…”

“Wanna really fuck up our lives and help those two hook up?”

“Oh my God, no. That’s not even funny.”

“Okay, good, ‘so long as we’re on the same page.”

[from "The Remains of Love Exhumed", part of the kick at the darkness 'till it bleeds daylight series, set during Derek's first year at Queen's and Casey's single year in New York]

#asks #urn writes #(kinda) #dasey #please do not ask me when this one will be finished #it's an epistle fic which means it's ALL dialogue/emails #which means it's taking a while because as much as i love dialogue i also have to know everything that's happening in the background? #and that's a lot #and it's also not a priority fic

[agnesgary]

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

✝️🕊️🙏Rom 13:14 kjav🙏🕊️✝️

#christianity #judaeo christian #the holy bible king james authorised version #bible verses #the truth #daily living #the word of god #righteousness #holiness #love one another #walk in the spirit #live in the spirit #victorious living #victory #the epistle of paul the apostle to the romans

[justana0kguy]

2024 JANUARY 14 Sunday

"Whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body."

~ 1 Corinthians 6:17-20

#bible #verse #scripture #second reading #first letter #first epistle #apostle #saint #Paul #Corinthians #1 Corinthians #God #Lord #Jesus #Jesus Christ #Christ #joined to the Lord #one spirit #avoid immorality #body is a temple #temple of the Holy Spirit #glorify God #in your body

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

It just turned xmas eve and I'm sitting here grinning like a lunatic at how I described Dove's transformation into demon!Dove, specifically because I really like what I headcanon'd about the letters!

In the climax battle scene of DDD, I gave Dove the same runes that Raven glows with in s4, except I Elaborated. I gave them Purpose besides just Look Cool and Ancient. Excerpt below (DDD, ch20).

--

And when the merging was complete, Raven couldn’t believe what she saw.

What had he done to her?

She lifted herself from the dust and stood with a stance so powerful, so confident that Raven couldn’t believe it was DOVE under that cloak. The newborn demon stretched, flexing, gathering and astrally caressed the currents of energy – Suddenly she threw the scorched cloak away and revealed an outfit that swept across her curves, skirting her back and shoulders, so provocative it was barely even there; its pieces embraced at her cocked hip and accentuated her battle-ready stance.

So little of that crimson and leathery flesh was hidden, the real Dove would have fled under the covers from embarrassment. But more importantly, more frighteningly, this utterly uncharacteristic outfit revealed messages sewn into her skin like astral battlescars:

Dove was marked with dark scrawls of energy, the epistles burning in activation, scripts to keep his power in her body, runes to channel evil energies ripped from the very cosmos, letters as old as the chaos they channeled were strewn across every inch of her exposed flesh. Warnings on her arm. Triumph flooded down her back. Terms of surrender splashed across her collarbone and met at the four cauterized scars on her chest.

Trigon was gone, sealed within her by the sigil of damnation, and the magic now thriving within her was clamoring for violence - delirious to be unleashed, even as embers of the fading hellfire still lit her skin.

And here was the perfect target.

Dove’s senses, human and preternaturally enhanced, all detected Raven’s presence. She sensed the signs of heightened emotion: Raven’s calm mask was strained. She saw the subtle tension in her shoulders, heard her heart pounding a heavier rhythm than it had a moment ago. She felt the slightest shift of blood flow as Raven’s muscles tensed, preparing for battle at her instinct’s call, and she could feel the air strung tight around her as Raven's powers raged within her, the trained instinct to eliminate the threat, warring with the protectress instinct to not hurt her little sister.

And most satisfying of all, her telepath mind tasted Raven’s fear, an absolute delicacy whether the fear was for herself or her lost sister’s soul.

#ddd #rhs stories #rhs personal teen titans #tt headcanons list #(Because this really IS all headcanon; aside from the Mark of Scath we really DON'T know what the fuck it all mEANS) #I don't know how much of those lines about the letters was headcanon power vs. Nexus on both the Raven and the Dove axis... #but gods I'm proud of it WHEREVER the fuck it came from. #I'm also proud that it took me approximately 10 minutes to come up with that many words for ''letters and sentences and words''. #I'm still not sure of the CONNOTATIONS of the word ''epistle'' but I could always slap an ''unholy'' before it if I find out it's unfit. #The punctuation in this chapter is still Under Review (as is demon!Dove's outfit?) but GODS I'm proud of the verbiage! #Doylist: the outfit is to show off the glowing spell words. Obviously. #The energies of it is probably what burned off Raven's clothes. #Watsonian though??? Yeah there's a thing with ''Dove lacks confidence and demon!Dove has too much of it'' but like. #Did I have to SEXUALIZE her to show that? Like. I didn't MEAN it that way; it's supposed to be ''she's proud and doesn't mind showing skin' #but does it come off as fanservice-y or sexualizing or objectifying or equating Showing Skin with Power? #this post brought to you by a zine I just read about One of the LEsser-Flaunted Aspects of my Identity #and it had a really interesting superhero world sort of thing and I forget why it made me think of DDD....? I think I was thinking of likin #the narration style or verbiage choices or something and was like ''I like my own sometimes too. LIKE THE MARKINGS'' #--OH I was thinking about Trigon's design and having stripes sometimes for some reason (like Tony the Tiger) #and that made me think of demon!Raven and then demon!Dove.

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

Only One God

We have only one God, and he is the Father. He created everything, and we live for him. Jesus Christ is our only Lord. Everything was made by him, and by him life was given to us. — 1 Corinthians 8:6 | Contemporary English Version Interconfessional Edition (CEVIE) The Contemporary English Version Interconfessional Edition Bible is © American Bible Society. All rights reserved. Cross References: Deuteronomy 4:35; Deuteronomy 4:39; Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 46:9; Jeremiah 10:6-7; Malachi 2:10

#God #Jesus #life #one God #1 Corinthians 8:6 #The Epistle of First Corinthians #New Testament #CEVIE #Contemporary English Version Interconfessional Edition #American Bible Society

[biblebloodhound]

Love for Others (Romans 13:8-14)

All people are created in the image of God and, therefore, deserve the dignity of conversation and relationship rather than being looked at as a “project” or overlooked just because they are different or don’t fit in. 

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”Love does no harm to a neighbor.…

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#apostle paul #christian life #christian love #faithful love #giving and receiving #god&039;s grace #god&039;s law #god&039;s love #god&039;s mercy #grace #hate speech #love #love for god #love of stranger #love one another #love your neighbor #loved by god #pauline epistles #romans #romans 13 #spiritual growth #spiritual life #spiritual transformation #the law

[ohhgingersnaps]

i sat down two hours ago ready to get work done, and then suddenly it was noon, i had eight wikipedia tabs open, and i'd spent the entire time doing yet another..... Theology Questions Deep Dive (TM)

#i know i've got a lot of new followers so if any of y'all need religious/deconstruction/christian stuff tagged please let me know #personal #the more i dig into church history the less alone i feel in my deconstruction/reconstruction process #if martin luther is allowed to be annihilationist and throw out epistles then maybe i am also allowed a little heresy #current topics of the day include: #scriptural inerrancy and whether the way i was taught to engage with biblical texts is the Way The Authors Intended (what else is new) #purgatory!! and why protestants don't believe in it (related slightly to biblical inerrancy and construction of the scriptural canon) #and whether categorizing love as romantic vs platonic is actually a useful categorization #the last one isn't a theological question but it IS something i stumbled across while scouring cs lewis' page for Hot Takes on inerrancy so #deconstruction #faith #religion #christianity

[internetskiff]

Something about Gordon Freeman that's extremely fascinating is how he was basically forced into the "Messiah" role by complete accident. Dude was on his way to work, caught in an extremely awful lab accident, and he was just fighting for his life so brutally that he ended up taking down an entire army, making the other less capable or equipped scientists assign him as the one that would go in and take down the Nihilanth - I mean, they basically didn't have many other options, or at least not many better options at their disposal. The whole time he basically doesn't have much of a say in any of it, which means he was practically railroaded into becoming the G-Man's employee by pure circumstance.

Doesn't get any better in Half Life 2 either - the surviving Black Mesa staff have turned this man they potentially sent to die into a legend amongst the resistance movement. The Vortigaunts chant his name as they draw murals on the canal walls. The Lambda - a symbol of both the Lambda Labs but most notably the symbol on the HEV suit - now symbolizes liberation. Therefore, of course, the man who bears this symbol is the liberator. By the ending chapters of Half Life 2, Freeman commands entire squads of rebels, appointed the leader regardless of how good a tactician he actually is - if they die, they died for him, not because of him. As long as he gets to the Citadel and breaches it's wall, all those deaths would be worth it - once again, others send him into a near-inhospitable environment to take down a near-invincible threat.

I think that despite us being in control of Freeman for most of the series, the real protagonists of the story are the Vance family. Eli, too, was right at ground zero when the Resonance Cascade occurred. He is the leader of the Resistance. It's very possible that he's the one who spread word of Freeman throughout City 17. The fall of Nova Prospekt AND the Citadel occurred as a result of Eli's capture. In the Combine's eyes, the Vances are a threat equal to, if not greater than Freeman himself. That, and the Vances have something Freeman doesn't - agency. They're beyond the G-Man's control. They're beyond the Combine's control. Their actions are completely their own, with no third party to control every single step they take. Over the course of the Episodes, it feels as though the dynamic shifts, with Alyx becoming a much more vital figure. The Combine are specifically after her now, because she carries the code capable of disrupting the portal through which the Combine could send reinforcements and finally consume Earth. In both the Epistle 3 script and in Half Life Alyx it ends with her basically taking Freeman's position under the G-Man's employ. She quite literally takes the role of the Main Character away from Gordon. This, of course, is nothing to envy, because it's been repeatedly shown that any character assuming this role in the series ends up being reduced to nothing but a pawn for those who control them. It's an extremely fascinating spin on the linear nature of the games, canonically acknowledging you're doing nothing but marching along a path someone else made for you. Despite being the one free man, you're not offered much of a choice.

#hl #hl2 #hl 2 #half life #half life 2 #gordon freeman #alyx vance #eli vance #the combine #g man #gman #the gman #rambling #had thoughts on this for a while but only recently managed to formulate them