We’re watching the Return of the King right now, and got to the part where Denethor is introduced. My husband asks me for the context of why Denethor is Like That, since I just finished reading the book. So I explained how Denethor has been using a Palantir for years to get information, and how Sauron has been manipulating him by only letting him see events that give him a worst possible impression of reality.
So my husband replies “Oh! So Denethor is basically just like your grandpa after he starts getting all his news from Fox.” And honestly, yeah pretty much.
Warn people before you make statements like that. I was not ready.
Amar baccha! My children, listen, for I have a story to share with you.
In the beginning there was the Kund, the deep wellspring from where the first Ohm of the Universe flowed. Soon other sounds and utterances flowed through, forming brooks of syllables, joined into streams of words, joined into rivers of sentences, joined into seas of stories, joined into oceans of truth.
And each sound and syllable and word, each sentence and story and truth, each little drop carried with it the Power of Creation and Destruction, the Power of Language: together like the ebbs and flows of tidal waves, like drought and floods, like sunshine and rain.
Creation comes from Destruction comes from Creation.
And this Power, the Power of Language, this exists for all those who speak, listen, write, read. For all those that carry Language in their heads and in their hearts. For it is Language that is your birthright and it is Language that is your responsibility.
And Language is not to be restricted, to be hoarded as though it is some precious and rare gold or silver. No, Language is to be shared by all, for it is everyone’s birthright, and everyone’s responsibility, to partake in the ebbs and flows of Creation and Destruction.
You are not the Master of Language, much like you are not the Master of Water or Air. You, all of you, are in Service to Language, much like you are in Service to Water or Air - Powers that create you, Powers that sustain you, Powers that destroy you.
There are some of you that will be entrusted to ensure the safety, sanctity, sanctuary of Language. You will be known as the Compassionate Ones, the Shafiqs, caretakers and custodians of Language and all those that wield it. It is your responsibility to care for the hearts and heads of those you serve, to ensure that their needs and desires are met, that they remain safe and protected and well. It is your responsibility to ensure that Language is shared freely, that Language is served for the greater good, that all hold access to Language and that your Language does not die before it is time.
And oh how its time will threaten to come! For there will be forces that claim to be Masters of Earth and Fire, claim their right to ravage your lands and control your people with ever-changing boundaries and restrictions. Forces that claim to be Masters of Water and Air and destroy all which you build in symbiosis to create that which dominates. Forces that claim to be Masters of Language, their own Language, while denigrating yours as lesser-than, impure, powerless.
And then there will be forces of your own. You claiming responsibility as privilege and using your custodianship as cruelty. You forgetting your own birthright and believing those that say your power can only be accessed by a select few through specific means foreign to you. You letting go of your Language, that which gives you Life, and forgetting all the syllables and stories and truths that it carries.
Destruction comes from Creation comes from Destruction.
The Power will still manifest, still create and destroy, even without your wielding of Language, even without those who speak and listen and write and read. It is Power that has existed before there was Humanity and will exist after there is Humanity, for it is Power that has created the Universe and will destroy the Universe.
Learn to approach Language with respect and responsibility, and you will gain strength, fortitude, prosperity, livelihood. But treat Language as though it is something you can control, restrict, deny, destroy, and you will find that it will control, restrict, deny, and destroy you.
And if you ever find that you are close to the brink of no return, return to the Waters: the oceans, the seas, the rivers, the streams, the brooks. Return to the wellspring, to the Kund, and call out for a new Ohm.
Remember this, baccha, for forgetting is the first step to Destruction without Creation.
[[source:Belinda Meggit So thepostmodernpottercompendium is hosting this really interesting series on the origins of magic which is now becoming an interesting story in progress. I have been meaning to write this story for a long time, ever since I found this picture in researching the bede, or gypsy boat people of Bangladesh:she’s one of them. I knew she was the face of thedainee that mysteriously guides the Bideshis as soon as I saw her picture, and now I want to write her story. The line about the kund and the first ohm is from a piece by Minal Hajratwala, about being a kinky queer femme Indian woman. In the piece she plays a lot with language and draws the connection between “cunt” and “kund” - as in “kundalini”. The name of the piece escapes me right now but it was performed in this year’s Yoni Ki Baat in SF.]]
Luke and Leia are so in sync and so attuned to each other, and so aware of when the other is in trouble, that there is no way some Rebel before the events of Return of the Jedi didn’t say, “lol were you guys separated at birth”
I am caught up on Better Call Saul and needed to draw the perfectly complimentary sweet angels who never did anything wrong and to whom nothing bad will ever happen.
Bradley: You’re talking about me in Morse Code. Well jokes on you, I KNOW Morse Code!
Roy: Yeah, that’s what we’re doing. In our very limited free time, with out very limited budget, we got a nanny for the Elrics and we went out and took a very outmoded, very unnecessary form of communication just so we could talk about you in front of you.
With Boba, Din, Fennec, and Cobb all under one roof, the conversational styles must be fucking whiplash.
You’ve got Boba “moonlighting as a poet” Fett, Din brought up in a covert that never saw the light of day and probably doesn’t know what the holonet is, Fennec making friends with the mods and picking up their memes, and then Cobb being the candy-ass cowboy that he is.
So I’m just sitting here imagining them trying to put their heads together like
Boba: …and that’s the plan. We get in, clear the place, get out before they even know we’re there. Sound good?
I think it would have been funnier if Apollo just had, like, the most bonkers taste in music due to being a god of music and being around for millennia, like he puts on his playlist and the first song is hurrian hymn no. 6, the next song is a theme song for some obscure tv show from decades ago, then it’s the fucking nokia jingle from the early 2000s, so on and so forth
SO I HAVE THIS HEADCANON WHERE HINATA IS ABOUT A WEEK FROM GIVING BIRTH TO BORUTO AND NARUTO JUST GOT HOME FROM A LONG MISSION AND HINATA HAVING ALL THOSE HORMONES, EMOTIONAL AND ALL AND OFC THE PAIN SO NARUTO IS GOING BATSHIT CRAZY PLUS THEY STILL DON’T HAVE A HOSPITAL BAG READY FOR LABOR AND DELIVERY AND SO NARUTO ASK IRUKA FOR HELP AND THEY BOTH JUST PANIC COZ IRUKA DOESN’T KNOW EITHER SO NOW WE HAVE TWO CLUELESS MOTHERFUCKERS WONDERING AROUND KONOHA WHO THOUGHT KAKASHI WOULD KNOW, YES, KAKASHI - THE PROVERBIAL EVASIVE KAKASHI, SO NOW WE HAVE THREE IDIOTS RUNNING AROUND THE STORE PICKING UP RANDOM BABY STUFFS. THEN JUST BY HEAVEN’S TIMING, HIASHI IS AT THE SAME STORE BUYING IDK MAYBE SOMETHING (irdk what he should buy coz i actually think he’ll just order some of his clansmen but for the sake of this hc let’s just say he’s some humble joe and decide to buy like a tomato or something) THEN HIASHI CAUGHT GLIMPSE OF THREE FRANTIC MEN AND THOUGHT SOMETHING BAD MIGHT BE HAPPENING SO HE DECIDED TO CHECK WHAT’S THE COMMOTION INSIDE IS ALL ABOUT ONLY TO FIND NARUTO PUSHING A CART FULL OF RANDOM STUFF LIKE BABY BOTTLES, BABY PILLOW, DIAPERS, BABY SHAMPOOS, ALONGSIDE IRUKA HOLDING A MOSQUITO NET BED FOR BABIES, KAKASHI WITH A FOOD MAKER FOR GOD KNOWS WHY AND NOW WE HAVE FOUR FRANTIC MEN RUNNING AROUND THE STORE, WITH HIASHI PUSHING ANOTHER CART FULL OF PLUSHIES, ONESIES AND BABY TOYS. IT WAS AROUND 9 PM WHEN HINATA HEARD THE FRONT DOOR OPEN, AND IN THE LIVING ROOM WALKS NARUTO BALANCING 4 BAGS OF BABY STUFFS, IRUKA HOLDING TWO BOXES OF WHICH I CAN ONLY GUESS ARE WEEK SUPPLY OF DIAPERS, BABY WIPES, NEXT COMES KAKASHI WITH HIS FOOD MAKER AND A BABY CARRIER AWKWARDLY HANGING AT HIS BACK, AND LAST IN TOW, HIASHI HOLDING A BIG FOX PLUSHIE AND BABY CLOTHES ON THE OTHER HAND, WEARING A FROG CAP EARS. HINATA WANTED TO ASK WHAT THE HELL THE FOUR OF THEM JUST BOUGHT WHEN THE DOOR SLAMMED WIDE OPEN WITH KIBA AND SHINO HOLDING A HUGE BOX THAT SAYS “BABY SLIDE AND SWING SET” JDDKJSJSBDKDKDJDJDJD
THE UTTER CHAOS OF THIS ALL omg— Also mosquito bed savior of my childhood days and all my memories. Poor Hinata thou, can you like imagine? You just see your dad, your husband , his teacher, your teacher, and your teammates showing up at your day with the absolute chaos.
The only thing missing in this perfect post is to remark that FOUR GROWN ASS MEN WHO’VE BEEN IN WAR MULTIPLE TIMES, TWO OF THEM WERE IN CHARGE OF THE ENTIRE COUNTRY panic about a baby
in batman 2022 bruce wayne’s parents were killed in 2001 he would have been like 10? i think. the black parade was released in 2006 when he would have been ambiguously high school aged and obviously very emo and unpopular. what i’m saying here is that i think battinson heard the lyrics “when i was a young boy my father took me into the city to see a marching band he said son when you grow up will you be the savior of the broken, the beaten, and the damned” and decided to become batman then and there.
