#i know i'm gonna enjoy this if a lot

[filledwithair]

Gia di Fiore, better known as Maze, the lead singer of Chronically Unfinished. Happy girl with a broken heart who is definitely not over her ex girlfriend bestfriend

This is th MC of @infamous-if, my new hyperfixation

A few facts abour her and the band

Full name: Gianna di Fiore

Stage name: Maze, she grew up reading percy jackson

Band name: Chronically Unfinished. They were teens when they came up with the name, it had to be dramatic and intense. Pretty sure Rowan thought it sounded funny

Gender: female (she/her)

Singing and speaking voice: Reneé Rapp, the girl can belt

Music genre: popy sound heavy on instruments. Leah Kate meets Dylan with a bit of Em Beihold

"Echoes" is the band best song at the moment and the only one that makes mention to seven's departure and the hurt that came with it. Gia refuses to sing about it, about the break up, about her relatiomship with seven, about how she fell in love with her and still is

Personality: there are big diferentes between Maze and Gia. In stage Maze bask in the atention, she is the personification of confidence. She's funny, witty and even flirty but on top of that, she is nice. Probably that kindness is the nexus between Gia and Maze.

Gia is a bit like Clark Kent, when she leaves the satge and put on her glasses that halo of attacttion dissipate, and she loves it. Loves being more unknown than Maze, loves her baggy jeans and her oversized hoodie. Loves walking around being a nobody.

Her life would be so much easier being a nobody but she was born to make music, it's her dream and she has already lost to much to give it up, so she'll have to come to terms with her life being public.

Random facts and a few headcanons:

☆ Gia plays the piano

☆ She kinda hated her last name but Seven used to call her tulip so she didn't care that much

☆ She was born in Milan but moved to the states when she was 8

☆ Speaks italian fluently, she even has a couple of songs in her journal

☆ Noboy reads her journal. Only Seven did. Sometimes.

☆ Plays the piano and uses it for songwriting. Will fight anyone to prove that her instrument is the best

☆ She went to college, studied history specialising in greece and the roman empire. Tough years.

☆ Her parents paid for it thinking she would forget about music

☆ Gia loves football, the european one and one of her dreams is going back to milan and watch a match in San Siro and sing "Sarà perché ti amo"

☆ She sang that song to seven and now it hurts a bit but...whatever

☆ Her journal is full of dodles

☆ Exercise is one of her coping mechanisms

☆So is smoking, something really bad for the lead singer but only does it when stressed

☆ Gia doesn't know how she ended up with so many tattos, it was going to be only one. She covers seven's initials with bracelets can't bring herself to erased them

☆ For some reason she's in love she still keeps a necklace with the letter S

☆ This is the pinterest, mostly vibes

☆ Not every song sees the light

#infamous #infamous if #seven lawless #if #interactive fiction #my mc #i love this story #it has drama #tons of it #and music #and it's so deep #sorry for any mistakes english isn't my first lenguage #i know i'm gonna enjoy this if a lot #thanks really

[sleepinglionhearts]

Oh, it’s gonna be the way you always thought it would be

but it’s gonna be no illusion

Oh, it’s gonna be the way you always dreamt about it

but it’s gonna be really happenin’ to ya

#doodles #fe art tag #fe3h #fire emblem three houses #claude von riegan #dimitri alexandre blaiddyd #edelgard von hresvelg #oh yes here we go again it's kai putting characters to kate bush lyrics that barely fit #look look look i've been obsessed with the line the cross and the curve for a long time #and many many months ago was like WAIT HOLD ON A SECOND i'm gonna APPLY THAT TO MY FIRE EMBLEM NONSENSE #and what do you know!! there's three characters perfect for it!!! #so i have actually had this in mind for well over a year and only recently put it to paper #the concept went through many changes #did all the florals and the characters on paper and the filling in the background digitally #i might eventually revisit this perhaps with color or a new rendering to make it look more dramatic #but for now i am just happy to have completed something that has been on my mind for so long #and during a time at which i have been making so little art #anyway please enjoy the art as usual i worked a lot on this one jshdsjdhgs

[quill-n]

Here's that Molly animatic I've been working on <3 !! I thought that this song fit him a little too well so I had to do something with it :)

[Here's the Youtube link for anyone that wants to watch it there]

thumbnail posting for Ant <3

#critical role #the mighty nein #mollymauk #mollymauk tealeaf #jester lavorre #yasha nydoorin #caleb widogast #lestera #kingsley tealeaf #caduceus clay #I know the others made appearances but they weren't really major figures in the animatic so I'm not gonna tag them #mighty nein spoilers #quillnart #I packed in a LOT of little details #hope you enjoy!! #(do I tag this as widomauk? i tried sneaking them in there a little) #(can be interpreted as non-romantic ofc tho) #(anyways I got a fun little idea for another mitski animatic involving essek #can't guarantee that one will be next though...) #(I have so many animatic scripts waiting to be drawn. rip me)

[cerise-on-top]

what if the 141 boys had a ridiculously tall husband. like. a little bit taller than konig, probably. and he's really scary to people, actually!!!! but not his s/o , nuh uh, he's disgustingly sweet to his beloved.. sorry i'm rambling, i think (jokes and idiocy aside i adore your headcanons <3)

Hey there! Thank you, that's very kind of you! Also thank you for sending in a request for a male reader, you're one of the first ones and I was very excited to write about a male reader for once :D

TF141 With A Very Tall Husband

Price: He didn’t really think he’d ever be dating someone much, much taller than him. Sure, he doesn’t particularly mind, but he’s not short either, with him standing at 1,88m himself. It makes him feel small at times, especially if you’re pretty muscular too. He doesn’t get insecure about it in the slightest, oh no, but it’s weird to be so much shorter than your loved ones. However, he’s pretty used to scary people by now. Ghost isn’t exactly a delight to have around at first when you don’t know him either, so he knows how to deal with scary people. Might ask you to tone it down a little bit when you’re scaring other people too much, he doesn’t particularly wanna attract attention like that. But you being a sweetheart towards him? It melts his heart. He knows what you’re like towards people that aren’t him, so it makes him smile that you’re willing to do just about anything for him just to spend some time with him. You wanna trim his beard? There’s a good chance you’ve got some experience with that anyway, so he really doesn’t mind it as much. Hell, he probably trusts you more than his own barber at times. Besides, it’s a nice little bonding activity. If you have a beard then he’ll offer to trim it for you as well. Price isn’t really opposed to being the little spoon, or just being held in general. Quite the opposite, you being this tall sometimes puts him in a cuddly mood where he just plops down into your arms. Gently scratch his scalp and there’s a good chance he’ll even fall asleep on you. He’s so used to being everyone’s protector, it feels nice to be protected for once. But he won’t always settle for being held either, it’s his job to make you feel safe and sound as well, and thus he will take on the role of cuddler as well. Will fight you for that role, actually. Price is a real sweetheart towards his loved ones as well, so I think the two of you would fit well together. His mere presence demands respect in the right people, which can sometimes scare others. So, from time to time, you might both scare other people together. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally.

Gaz: He makes so many jokes about you being this tall and feigns being hurt about being much shorter than you are. You’re his behemoth, his leviathan and his ziz. Loves calling you the names of monsters that are said to be pretty big, it’s endearing to him. Besides, you’re scary enough that some people call you a monster anyway, if just for your height. If anyone ever were to call you that in front of Gaz, then they’ll end up with a black eye. No one gets to call you a monster but him. While he won’t always approve of you scaring everyone, Gaz does have a few friends that he wants you to get along with, he won’t particularly do anything about it either if that’s just what you’re like. Might try to make you seem a bit less scary by being a bit more affectionate with you in public. Holding your hand, giving you a peck on the cheek, giving you a hug. Those kinds of things. He actually loves you being this tall since that means you can pick him up and spin him around. He’s not been picked up ever since he was a little boy, so he definitely wouldn’t mind you showing off to him just how strong you are. Is also always looking for an excuse to hold your hand. Oh, seems like he forgot just how big your hand actually is and how much it engulfs his. Remind him for a moment and hold his hand, will you? Gaz is a sweetheart towards his loved ones anyway, if you look past the fact he will sass anyone to show his affection, so he loves that you’re so sweet towards him. Though, sometimes he wishes you were about the same height so you could actually share each other’s wardrobe. But hey, at least he gets to wear your extremely oversized shirts and hoodies, one of his favorite things to do. Another thing he also adores is just sitting in your lap when you’re home together and will also place your hands so that you’re holding him in your arms. If you’ve got really warm hands then he’ll place them atop his thighs to keep himself warm. Gaz isn’t the warmest person out there, but that just means you get to warm him up yourself. Is actually a lot cuddlier because you’re this tall and will become your personal blanket.

Ghost: He feels kind of perplexed about you being so much taller than him. Ghost is 1,95m, he towers over pretty much anyone, so how dare you be so much taller than him. Pretends to hate you being this tall, actually loves it. Sometimes he dreams of sparring with you under the moonlight to assert his dominance, even though there’s really no need to since you’re such a sweetheart towards him. He probably just needs to ask and would get anything from you. He really doesn’t mind you scaring pretty much everyone off, he has the same effect on people he doesn’t know. That just means there’s less people to worry about in his life for the time being. You’ll be spending a lot of time alone with each other that way, which he really likes. Though, maybe don’t scare his teammates too much, he genuinely likes them and wants them to be well too. Though, it’s kind of hard to properly scare them anyway. Ghost is usually a pretty quiet man when there’s no need for chit chat, but he doesn’t mind hearing your voice. In fact, he might get worried if you suddenly stop talking and will ask you what’s wrong. If you’ve got nothing to talk about then he’ll ask some questions so he can continue hearing your voice. He also blushes from time to time when you suddenly give him some sugary sweet compliments. He’s a grown, scary military man, he really shouldn’t be, but it’s just so endearing, especially when you, even bigger and scarier, call him your little honey bunny. It actually motivates him to do house chores. Not that he won’t do them anyway, but you calling him embarrassingly domestic names makes him just a tad bit soft, which leads to him trying to be a good husband. You may cuddle him since he trusts you, but he will also want to hold you from time to time. Life is a constant give and take, so prepare to be cuddled. Won’t particularly ask for cuddles, though, since he’s kind of too embarrassed to admit he’s touch starved. To you it’s blatantly obvious, though, which is why you initiate those cuddling sessions. Ghost appreciates it and sometimes hides a smile in either the pillow or your neck. As long as you don’t see him being silly, all is good.

Soap: He used to hate you being this tall. Soap may “only” be of average height, but he’s the tallest in his family, which he was actually pretty proud of. He towered over his father, even. And then he joined the military, where quite a few people were taller than him. And then you had the audacity to introduce yourself to him. You, the tallest man he’s ever met. It hurt his ego. Ever since you got together, though, he slowly got over it. You’re just such a sweetheart, how could he hate you over something as trivial as this? However, nothing could ever stop him from trying to pick you up and spinning you around. Soap is a pretty strong lad too, he’ll make it work somehow. You will feel tiny and cared for too. There’s a good chance he can’t reach your lips to kiss you. Yes, he could just ask you to bend down, but where’s the fun in that? Climbs you like a tree instead. He’s also always thinking of that one post where, instead of asking their boyfriend, the person should just punch him in the stomach. He won’t do it, but he remembers it every time without fail. He doesn’t mind you being scary either. Hell, Ghost is also a pretty scary guy to have around when you don’t know him and he’s one of Soap’s closest friends. Besides, he knows better anyway. You’re a total goof and the biggest sweetheart this world has ever seen. You being scary towards others just means that he’s got you all to himself all the time. Soap is a clingy guy, so you can expect him to cling to you like a koala from time to time. Actually, that was a lie, you should expect him to jump at you and hold onto you very often. Cuddles over safety. You’re likely also one of the only people on the planet willing to hear him out when he’s talking about his passions. And he could go on for hours every time. Explosives, weapons, whatever show you’re watching together, all is fair game. See, you’re one of the biggest sweethearts to him because you actually listen to him, despite him going into great detail about it all. You may not always be able to understand him when he’s talking chemistry again, but you hear him out anyway, and for that alone you’ve won his heart. He also sits on your lap while talking. You’re his little throne now that he takes immense pride in.

#cod #cod x reader #john price #john price x reader #price x reader #kyle gaz garrick #kyle gaz garrick x reader #gaz x reader #simon ghost riley #simon ghost riley x reader #ghost x reader #john soap mactavish #john soap mactavish x reader #soap x reader #I doubt anyone cares but I HC Soap to be 1.78m and Gaz to be 1.81m I just forgot to mention it #m!reader #I know I'm biased but I feel as though I'm actually more willing to write about male readers than fem readers #90% of all things I see in this fandom are with a fem reader there's barely anything for male readers #still thinking back fondly on that one time I got a request for a ftm reader #but that was an eternity ago and I feel as though I'd write that request better now and with more content #I tried to write a lot for this because I was really looking forward to it #besides it was a pretty cute request too. I've actually got a request that's similiar to this one too #it's with Laswell and a reader that's roughly as tall as König #and then I've got something for Nikolai and Price as a couple #I'm gonna write some HCs for that alone and then write some more with added reader as a bonus #I know I never mentioned it anywhere but I do try to be a reader centric blog. but I can write charxchar as well #I just haven't done so since middle school I think #wait no I've written charxchar not too long ago for madcom and tf2. good times #not sure if I'll continue writing today though. I started a new anime and I'm enjoying it a lot so I might watch that instead

[piko-power]

Seeing posts about the Takeover and complaining about "ship baits" made me remember why I felt ashamed about liking sonamy and sonadow a few years ago...

#piko rambles #sonamy #sonadow #sonic twitter takeover #I know the Twitter Takeovers are done just for fun and that not EVERYTHING there is canon. I'm well aware of that. #But it's hard to enjoy your favorite childhood pairings when a lot of fans hate them or people who like them. #Guess I'm gonna take a break on these pairings if that makes anyone feel better. Sorry.

[storfulsten]

my silly viera wol alt bc reasons uwu

#very messy tablet doodle could be better but eh it's something lol #anyways ye this is my edgy bunboi alt whom I like very much #it's about the vibes #I guess #if you don't get the vibes then congratulations I envy you I wish I wasn't so hung up on them tbh geez #ye he's silly af but I'm just having fun so lol #and really he doesn't look all that silly ingame I'm just projecting nonsense quite a lot I guess ha #his hair is actually black with purple details not all dark purple but I improvised and it ended up like that so eh #it works I suppose #he ninja'd his way up through hw danced through sb and is now reaping his way through shb and beyond yeehaw #shame his favorite facemask is bound to ninja only though bc the one he has to use as reaper is so clunky but eh it works #and there's always the bandana options for variety I guess ha #gonna continue through shb with this guy soon when I get the time #catboy's 'bout to ruin this poor bunman's life even more letsgooo #anyways enough random rambling sorry #enjoy or don't it's whatever #ffxiv viera #wol #idk if I should tag the finger flipping but eh let me know if I should I guess idk lol #I draw what I want #also unrelated but go stream DISDAIN on your platform of choice or don't I'm not your mom but either way yay music highly recommend yessir #anyways next artpost will be bombeep or at least fnf related in some way I swear to jeebus #fingers crossed something'll be doodled soon yeehaw

[eldrtchmn]

...3, 2, 1 personal rant incoming

(it's depressing I'm sorry)

#this year was...a lot #like from the lowest to one of the best moments #my grandmother died in summer and with it my whole family is gone it feels like now it's just my sisters and me #it feels weird and lonely #she and my grandfather raised us basically so it hits very hard #thankfully my brain just shut this out entirely #then we went to Japan on my dream trip one moment I wanted to cry the other just wanted to enjoy my life #I was waiting and saving for that trip so long #kid me would be so surprised and probably couldn't believe it #so many things happened and now I'm don't know how to put it...just feel free? #and just lost a bit #personal #delete later #I don't like to share these things but I'm gonna burst out if I don't scream into the void #2024 will be even more challenging #siiiiigh #as for art idk what I want to do #I will try to take less comms and keep it as a hobby probably #it never really worked out in the end how I wanted it to be #the clients through the years were all amazing and helped my growth as an artist do I'm forever grateful for that 🖤 #strange times for sure

[booasaur]

New Amsterdam - 4x21

#newamsterdamedit #new amsterdam #lauren bloom #leyla shinwari #janet montgomery #shiva kalaiselvan #new amsterdam spoilers #new amsterdam 4x21 #leyren #femslash related stuff #I was all prepared to be unhappy with how this ep went #and tbh I DO still have a lot of complaints in general #but lol anon what you said in your ask I just read is what I've been thinking too #this show just isn't gonna do better #and for once it's not even because they're the f/f ship but because these writers are just that bad in general #in the end I was just watching these two work together and this scene was so cute #(inappropriateness and unprofessionalism aside lol this is your ex who works for you) #as much as I'd enjoy this that much more knowing how we got here I'm just gonna stay in it and ignore the rest #clearly the writers want to as well lol

[laurasbailey]

alright i'm finally caught up i love the great deku lore dump tree evontra'vir

#cr spoilers #i'm enjoying this arc a lot #even though ashton just permanently irks me these days lmao #and i know otohan is at the key but i just have this feeling she's gonna spring up any second #probably while they're fighting that sky whale dragon thing knowing their luck!

[altobug83]

grrrrrr..... frogs....

#I'M SORRY I'M VERY VERY FUCKING AUTISTIC ABOUT THIS FROG RIGHT NOW #HIS NAME IS FUCKING “BULLFROG” AND HE IS THE GREATEST EXAMPLE OF AN ASSASSIN WE'VE EVER SEEN IN THE ASSASSIN'S CREED FRANCHISE #HE'S FROM #Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix #I have friends I think might enjoy this series #I'm gonna #Fucking Kidnap them to watch this #/j #no kidnapping just pestering #They're Irl friends but don't worry they're also mentally ill #Also if anyone here knows me on Discord and wants to watch something with me #DM #I will watch this with you if we're friends #Oh this is a lot of tags #Is this what it feels to be Tumblr Enough? #I think I've evolved finally after 5 years on this hellsite

[sophiethewitch1]

kinda wanna write a fic where the dog is literally the deus ex machina

#sophie speaks #dog backwards is god yknow it makes sense #me and my undertale bullshit back on it again #i have 3 fic ideas for it. one is a meta commentary one is just about a reader with a chronic illness and one is my love for desperate read #-rs returning in full blown massive fashion. and also identity issues but all 3 of these fics have that last one just has that. a lot lot #all include my weird DID metaphors and multiverse shenanigans #because honestly all sans/sans shippers do not understand the weirdness of loving an alternate version of urself #they dont lean into it #i mean im not gonna write sans/sans I'm an x reader till death because i love self love. also sans could not love himself look at that guy #but undertale itself has so many cool themes u can build off of that i just. i wanna grab and squeeze em out like juice #and i mean its not like i can do www at the moment I've written like... 9k this month it ain't going good #might as well just enjoy the depression spiral. i know that doesn't sound very possible but yknow. we rock w it #im just in pain all the time... ill go back to the docs soon and maybe just start taking straight up opiods #but until then i can only do things if i feel there is absolutely 0 pressure on me to do them #once again thanks school system i love these learned behaviors you traumatised into me they're really useful #what was i saying? did i mention im a little scatterbrained atm

[b4kuch1n]

dip pen ink comm second round for in order R. Burry, @sega-bass-kissing, and Solaris

#bakuspecial #commission art #and thats round 2 concluded! #once again sorry it took a Lot longer than round 1 lol #its just. sometimes there are things up here #which is why (mentioning this again in an actually relevant post lol) I'm gonna leave my next week off from this! #round 3 will open sometimes AFTER this sunday. my rest of the week will be for other business I gotta take care of #tbh what I'm doing with ink here is kind of the equivalent of like. picking up someone's dog and running off #nobody knows whats going on or is gonna happen. but I am doing it nonetheless #now tho. maybe I should nap for a bit more. itd help #thank you again to folks who've bought a slot thus far! hope everyone's enjoying whatever the hells Im doing dskjfhdsjfh #I sure am uh. figuring it out. it is fun but then I'm the one with the dog in my arms #have a good night! maybe u should have an animal of choice in ur arms too. would recommend

[alexis-royce]

Hello! Question: is Lee trans by any chance?

If you've ever felt gender euphoria from looking at Charlie Day, you may be entitled to financial compensation.

Patreon | Ko-Fi

#NonPlatonic Forms #The original punchline was going to be that he only gave Celeste a 6/10 #Which is how he knows he's transmasc and not transfemme #But that was too many panels #But yeah Lee being trans is a big part of why I keep enjoying writing him #You see when I write Stanley it's kinda in the back of my head that Stubborn!Stanley enjoys the Parable #in part because he's trans #When I'm in VR Chat and I've got my Stanley avatar on it's really funny and cool to be this dumb glitch man #And Stubborn!Stanley feels all of that #I'm not gonna put Lee back in The Stanley Parable because I think I could use these two to make something cool #And I'm working on making them vibe in their world the same way Stanley and The Narrator clicked in Advanced Ludology #It was fun cracking open those storytelling conceits #And I legit have a lot to say about immersion vs being aware of craftsmanship #And y'know being trans means Lee and I might really love the craftsmanship side of things <3

[stuckwith-harry]

i fear i am experiencing university fomo and nostalgia whilst literally still in university

#the aesthetics of student life go hard your honour #i'm actually having an alright day. i am sipping a coffee at the uni's most aesthetically pleasing library. and i wrote a lot for my thesis #it's just #intensely fucking frustrating that i know i will have insurmountable degrees of uni FOMO the second i graduate even though right this secon #i resent all the time i have to sink into my b.a. thesis. and i can think of 20 things i'd rather be doing! #and yet i know i will be absurdly nosalgic for it AND YET i am not even enjoying myself RIGHT NOW! #but also i feel i did not really get to live the Full Uni Experience thanks to all the fucking covid and all the FUCKING adhd #thank fuck i am probably gonna do at least one or two other degrees lmao. #BUT FIRST we are gonna get that diagnosis my guys!!!!!!!!

[entryno17]

i really struggle to understand where the interpretation of gaster as a villain came from, to be honest. like okay, maybe when we only had a weird mystery man behind a gray door and not much else, i can kinda see why. in a game where villainy often doesn't seem to exist, i guess it only makes sense to ascribe it to someone who is literally intangible. but now... i just don't get it!

based on everything we've seen in deltarune, the impression i get of gaster is just a strange skeleton man, stuck beyond the boundaries of spacetime. he's someone that distantly appreciates the beings in the world he most likely had a hand in creating, and wants to share this experience with the player. at the very worst, he's just "mildly unnerving" due to the mystery around his (non)existence.

my best guess is that this might stem from a misunderstanding of the gonermaker sequence? recall that it's gaster guiding the player to create a vessel for themselves—a vessel meant to inhabit the light world. he's not the one who forces kris under the player's control; the vessel is discarded by a third party, who then asserts that "no one can choose who they are". the vessel is discarded, kris's body is seized: autonomy is stolen from both parties. this exact thing seems to be what gaster was working to prevent.

there are two opposing forces here: one on the side of the player, and one on the side of 'fate'. seeing the appreciation gaster seems to have for the player as well as their ability of choice, i REALLY don't think he's particularly fond of fatalism. don't forget that gaster seems to be aware of the nature of SOULs, including the power of determination: the force that drove the entire plot of undertale; the power that allowed the player to survive death—to subvert fate—and the ability to choose what 'route' they went on. fundamentally, deltarune's metanarrative appears to be about the immutability of a set story contradicting the inherent interactivity of a game: determinism vs. determination. neither side is 'evil', but each has its own narrative to push.

that being said, i don't definitely don't believe these interpretations of gaster stem solely from a metanarrative misunderstanding. unfortunately, i'm 99% sure the main motivation behind the vilification of gaster is simply that it gives the story an overarching 'antagonist', which it currently lacks concretely. this isn't a bad motivation, i guess... but it's just so hollow to me. gaster is the villain because the story needs one. he's just fulfilling fate. it's not that this WOULDN'T work at all—there are some circumstances where it might. i mean, forcing someone into a narrative they're desperately trying to subvert seems like a pretty bad situation to be in. maybe they'd start to crack. maybe they'd have no choice but to succumb. who knows! the possibilities are endless...

#i realize the end sounds like i'm saying 'if you keep being MEAN to gaster he's gonna GET you >=(' which is objectively hilarious #but that's not what i mean i swear </3. #OH forgot to include in the post but there's also another contradiction in the determinism/determination duality: #each 'route' is still predetermined; it's all written in code. these choices are not truly yours to make even when they're meant to be. #there's a lot of really interesting stuff going on there in that dichotomy. i enjoy exploring it a lot #i know for a fact i've talked about this topic here before but it's on my mind again. that's why i'm posting this at 3 AM </3

[queenlucythevaliant]

Some off-the-cuff thoughts on overspiritualizing patterns in science

I remember watching a talk in middle school youth group about laminin, the "molecule that holds your whole body together" which was supposedly shaped like a cross. The suggestion, basically, was that the cross's image was integral to our molecular makeup and that this was part of God's design in a very Significant way. I was a burgeoning STEM girl, so I taped a diagram of a laminin up next to my bed for a while.

(As I would later find out, the whole laminin thing had/has some reach among Christians. There are T-shirts and everything)

Fast forever to spring of my freshman year as a microbiology student. I take my first course in cell bio, and I learn that laminins are actually one of many families of ECM glycoproteins. They aren't really any more significant in "holding the body together" than collagens, elastins, or fibronectins. They're very important, yes, but ultimately just one type of adhesive protein among many. And! They also do a bunch of other stuff that's way cooler than just. Adhesive.

While some laminins do bear resemblance to a cross when diagramed, it's really only because they have three subchains. Some are t-shaped, but others are y-shaped, and those don't look anything like a cross. Also, when they're in situ rather than in a nice, neat diagram, they tend to be all floppy and then they look even less cross-like.

Source

And when I learned about this I was oddly relieved. It felt like I was right about something that I couldn't even put into words, and that somehow the field of what I could call glorious had grown wider.

Christians are called to see and marvel at the presence of God in creation. I love doing that! I see God left and right through my scientific studies. Yet I also know that the human brain is pattern-seeking and that we are prone to pareidolia. I honestly don't know that there's a substantive difference between seeing the cross in some laminins and seeing Jesus on a piece of toast. It's all just seeing patterns that arise from something else (in the case of laminins, being able to bind three different molecules at once) and attributing spiritual significance. God is sovereign and maybe in the grand scope of his vision for creation it means something, but in terms of seeing God's hand in science I just find it so... small?

You could spin so many four-chain or four-domain proteins or goodness knows how many other molecules into images of the cross if you pick the right diagram. You could take every pattern of three in nature (and there are many!) as an image of the Trinity. If you really, really wanted to, you could take every six in organic chemistry as a sign of the beast, which would be hilarious in its misguidedness. It just becomes so literalistic and dull so very fast.

Look! Wouldn't you rather talk about the fact that laminins begin to appear along the edge of a developing lung at just ten weeks of human embryonic development, suggesting that they play a role in alveolar morphogenesis? That they're present in the neural stem-cell niche, which makes them an attractive candidate for helping to treat degenerative neurological conditions? I want to go back to whoever gave that talk that I watched in youth group and shake him and say, "God did that, and you're still hung up on the fact that laminins have three subchains?"

#God is so so big and as a result the horizons of science are ENORMOUS #very often when Christians talk about science it's with a tone of ' #see! look we found it! the God molecule! incontrovertible proof of the divine!' #and like. my brothers and sisters in Christ. God didn't create the world for us to prove our way to him #he created a world that shouts and cries his name but we have to know HIM first! not the other way around #you're not gonna find God in Laminins if you're fixated on it being this big significant Thing that Proves that GOD SIGNS HIS HANDIWORK! #you can absolutely meet him there if you take the time to marvel at the glory of a molecule this versatile #about which we can ask questions! and draw closer to our creator by understanding his creation better! #just. i feel such a grave responsibility and a glorious joy towards promoting scientific literacy among Christians #it's hard to describe but in a lot of ways it's the thing i want most to do with my life #also to be clear: not trying to vague-post about anyone #Kaylie's post about quarks did inspire this but only insomuch as it skirted right up against this subject #about which i clearly have a lot to say #the original post was gleeful and charming and I'm so glad that you're enjoying your physics book! #just. i think it's important not to fixate on the symbols at the expense of the actual wonders of creation #wow I am such a woman in stem #good grief #pontifications and creations #all truth is god's truth #endless forms most beautiful