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In an attempt to get the Red Paladin to be more Galra, he and another paladin are captured. He is forced to watch them torture Blue, so that he’ll get angry and resort to instincts. No matter how much Lance pretends to be okay, Keith knows it’s not really okay, and knows there’s nothing he can do but watch helplessly.

My first fic in ages, hope you guys check it out!

I cosplayed as Yurio from Yuri on Ice tonight!

Stone-hewn graves at Heysham, Lancashire. Believed to be 11th Century. 

@hinotorihime, here's the fall outfit!

I decided I needed angst so here it is. It’s after the third partition of Poland when she still believed that Poland was dead.

—

{In shaky handwriting, a mix between Polish and Russian with a few tear spots on the paper}

Dear Pol,

I need you. I hurt so much. My head is so fuzzy. My hand is shaking, though you can probably tell from my handwriting. Oh my God- you know I don’t say that often. I just can’t think of anything better to say. Russia had me spend from dawn to noon shoveling the animal waste. Afterwards was moving these heavy things then cleaning then cooking dinner for everyone. After that I had to clean up the stables again. I can’t remember the last time I ate. I can’t get rid of the smell. Please. Please don’t be dead. I’m losing hope. My head is so fuzzy. I feel like I’m forgetting who I am. I feel like I’m becoming a mindless servant. Please. Please don’t be dead. I need you please don’t be dead.

Your wife,

Gabi

The Experimental Plastic House //  Saint Petersburg 1962

Almost all the “filling” was made of plastic: windows - from plexiglass, pipes - from vinyl plastic, wallpaper - from PVC film.

architect A.P. Shcherbenok and engineer L.G. Levinsky 1961

Journal “Technology of Youth”

Ruth and the Romance of Consent

This year rereading the Book of Ruth I've been making sure to contextualize her within the rest of Tanakh. She's a beautiful little romance in isolation and a pointed moral commentary about sexual accountability in conversation with Genesis. In fact, she's a better romantic text if you deliberately read her in response to Genesis.

Ruth is a descendant of Moab and Boaz is a descendant of Judah. That two people from these specific families meet and marry is no literary/theological accident, since Genesis stans will immediately remember that both bloodlines are born from a sexual crime.

The man Moab for whom the nation is named was conceived by rape-incest, Lot's daughter mounting him when he is drunk. (Genesis 19) While the moral lesson of that sordid episode is complex and murky, the horror is blatant.

Boaz is the great-great-great-grandson of Peretz, who was conceived by Judah sleeping with his disguised daughter-in-law Tamar. (Genesis 38) Judah condemns her as a harlot to be burned, and though he cancels the death penalty once he realizes he is the father, the Biblical author is clear that he has all the power, responsibility, and blame in the situation.

In both cases, a child is born from a man and his daughter figure having sex. Leviticus 19 is explicit that such a relationship is forbidden. (Remember that Biblical law makes an immoral act an illegal one.) Both women acted from desperation in trying to conceive an heir but explanation is not excuse, especially since neither man knowingly consented to the act.

One might think, in a society obsessed with lineage and legitimate inheritance, that Moab and Peretz would be cursed morally and socially for their parents's sin, that their children's children would still bear the shame. But the Book of Ruth upends that expectation by having their descendents act with such morality that they merit the kingdom and the future Messianic dynasty.

When Boaz marries Ruth, he is technically fulfilling an esoteric Biblical inheritance law called yibum, honoring his dead relative Mahlon by marrying his childless widow so that Mahlon will have an heir. All very formal and proper, except that absolutely none of their contemporaries should have expected them to bother! Ruth isn't Jewish, so why should she care about property she's not allowed to access? (Marrying a Moabite woman was also illegal.) Naomi is explicit about releasing Ruth from any obligation she might feel. And Boaz is a wealthy, established community leader who's not even a close relative, so why would he marry Mahlon's goyische ex? The sexual ethics laws don't apply here, no one would notice if they just fucked.

Ruth and Boaz's meet-cute, therefore, is neither just a love story (against all odds!!) nor just a creative case study on how to apply weird property laws. When Ruth slips into Boaz's bed in the middle of the night, the Biblical audience can reasonably expect another murky sexcapade, like in Genesis. Nothing new under the sun, right? Just another desperate woman taking advantage of an oblivious powerful man to secure her survival.

INSTEAD, we get a compassionate, gentle scene where the couple not only does not sleep together, Boaz promises to marry her. In the dark, on the floor, in the middle of the harvest season, two kindred spirits open their hearts and hopes and trust each other to honor their promises the morning after. Your faves could never.

In Jewish tradition, we usually classify yibum as redemption, ie Boaz redeeming Mahlon's property and inheritance. But before the property redemption in front of the court, there was a moral redemption, made in private with no witnesses but the sacks of grain and the LORD.

Ruth and Boaz remind us that consent and dignity are always beautiful and romantic. We respect our sexual partners because it is right, not in expectation of reward or applause. And when we do, we can blot out the memory of any ancestral crimes. The generational trauma is ended, and love & trust will merit the World To Come.

Happy Shavuot!

Gravity Falls marathon inspired me to do this. I've been thinking about doing a Mabel blog for a while. Heck, I've tried twice before on G+. What do you guys think? It'll be mostly text posts as like diary entries telling about her summer. Every day or so there will be a new adventure and there will be catching the followers up on the adventure.

*God hesitates before sliding it towards himself* Well when you put it that way...

*slides God two dollars* I want a girlfriend

this is from a real diary by a 13-year-old girl in 1870. teenage girls are awesome and they’ve always been that way.