#zuppi

[kisa-seira]

✨ Dragonguard Rayla ✨

What if Rayla would have joined the Dragon Guard, just like her parents? In another timeline perhaps? What would Callum think when he first sees her?

This picture was inspired by @zuppizup 's work Out of Time.

Now please go and check out her amazing stories. :)

[machiavelli]

he is for the people, always will be and won’t go anywhere<3

[uniasus]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Fic rec! 173K The Dragon Prince Rayllum slow burn.  Summary: Almost two years ago, assassins came for Harrow. Callum was cornered, at her mercy and then... she let him go.

She might be long dead, but Callum was determined to do as Harrow suggested. To reject the narrative of strength and instead embrace the narrative of love. To make a better future for all, humans and elves alike. But when he and Ezran stumble upon something hidden in Viren’s secret chambers, Callum realises he might actually be able to make up for the mistakes of the past.

Comments: This is a slow burn. Like you’re 1/4 of the way through before there’s hand-holding. You’re halfway through before there’s a date. I wanted to scream. The premise of this is that Rayla is captured and kept alive by Viren the night of the attempted assassination. Callum and Ezra finding her is a way to start to build peace with Xadia, but Rayla and Viren have been tied together by dark magic so long there are...consequences. The romance 100% take center stage here, but what’s going on politically and magically are important and can jump start things - like feelings. And I love all the little hints that Ezra can speak to animals, even if it’s never actually said in the story.

[zuppisglasses]

MiniZuppi in my pocket plzzzzz

[ana-del-carmen]

[sullustangin]

Papal Conclave 2025: My picks

Ok, so I've already started a short essay series to post on this little Hellsite (affectionate), but I wanted to lay out my papal bets before they actually vote a guy in. The last conclave to go beyond a week was the one in 1830-31, so time is short.

NB: I watch Church politics and cardinals like other people watch college football. Draft Day = Conclave, but there's only guy drafted. I do have an advanced degree in medieval history, so I feel relevant for once.

Top pick: Matteo Zuppi of Italy (serves in Milan, born of Rome). Zuppi looks like Big Bird if he was a person. He's anecdotally very kind and humble; he bikes wherever he goes and is nicknamed Don Matteo by the locals. (Don Matteo is also a mystery solving priest on Italian TV, so it's affectionate.) Like Francis, he shuns the swag. He's a street priest -- literally on the ground with people. He is pastoral while also being very academic (5 books with another on the way). He wrote the intro to Fr. James Martin's book on outreach to LGBTQ people. He's ok with LGBTQ parishioners, blessing their unions, and having married priests. Though he's officially stated he wouldn't permit lady deacons, he's academically curious, however. He was Francis' man to go to Ukraine to try to negotiate, and the Ukes liked him even though he didn't come out with a success. He was also Francis's man to start reforming and investigating sex abuse within the Italian Church. He's got the academic, pastoral, and diplomatic street cred, and somehow, he's still a relatable human. He does have a rep of being ferocious when necessary, so I think he could excommunicate someone (with a lot of documentation and footnotes, of course).

Possible alternative: Luis Tagle of the Philippines, who is nicknamed the Asian Francis by some due to how closely their theology and practice are. He is less likely to be ok with women deacons, but would embrace married priests to increase the priesthood in the Philippines. He wrote reforming texts about the sex abuse back in 2003, before the Papacy really got to work on it. He was ahead of the curve. He's very kind and happy, but some worry he won't do well when confronted by antagonism. He also cries very easily; he's one of the younger cardinals at 67, so while that's ok with the younger generation, most of the voters are more uptight about that sort of thing. He also may not lower the hammer on people as hard as Francis did.

Park the Bus: Pietro Parolin of Italy. Parolin looked more likely early on, but his reputation got brigaded by allies of JD Vance and Catholics of that tilt; Parolin was the guy who chewed out Vance and probably bandied about the 'excommunication' word if Vance didn't stop distorting doctrine for political gains (and yes, the Church can kick you out for that). Parolin was very much Francis' right hand man, the Vatican Secretary of State from the moment Francis became pope. Recently, there had been scuttlebutt about Parolin cleaning up B16's abuse mess -- and not telling Francis, which may have caused a rift between the two. Parolin agreed with Francis, but would not take the doctrine further. Parolin always struck me as not having enough pastoral experience; he did 2 years in Nigeria, but all the rest of his work has been in diplomacy and admin -- he doesn't have the same charisma or personable-ness that Francis has. He'd probably read more like Benedict XVI, who was known for his writing and his cats, not his people skills. As the cardinalate trends younger and global and progressive, conservatives may flock to Parolin to stall progress. He may be elected as a 'pause' candidate, to see what happens in the aftermath of Francis' changes.

Dark Horse: Pierbattista Pizzaballa of Italy serves in Gaza. He was the one who answered the phone nightly when Francis called the Christians in Gaza throughout the war. Pizzaballa has been too occupied with his mission in Gaza to tangle in some of the admin business of the Church. We know Francis liked him and his theology. We know he's brave -- he offered himself to Hamas in exchange for the hostages. However, he's not made a lot of statements or done a lot of interviews with the press. He is very well respected, but where he stands on a lot of issues is unknown...mostly because he hasn't had the luxury of discourse when his mission is Gaza. This is a wild card that might happen if the cardinals are in a certain mood.

"We all like this guy. We can't agree on anything else.": Anders Arborelius of Sweden. I've affectionately nicknamed him the Swedish Chef, because he was a Carmelite monk, got called to be a bishop, fell up the ladder, and now he wants to be a monk again so he can cook and watch his mystery TV shows (seriously, he did say this). He handed in his resignation.... then Francis died, so he's stuck being cardinal until this conclave is all over. Being pope would sabotage this, and I totally get why he doesn't want the job...but he might fall up into it again. Also, men who don't want to be pope, end up pope (Francis is the prime example of this -- he waved off the 2005 conclave who wanted him then.) Arborelius is also a convert to Catholicism, so he would be the first non-cradle Catholic to get the post in millennia. He's a Carmelite, so he's fairly mainline Church. His theology is conservative, but not retrograde; he'll talk about the subject, but he's probably not going to push Francis's agenda further.

Wartime Consigliere/"Burn it to the ground" mode: If the cardinals decide to resent efforts to meddle in the election, they may choose someone further 'out there' than Francis to stick it to conservatives. In which case, I think it might be Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg. If you thought Francis was wild, you need to meet this guy. Hollerich has declared Church rules about fornication to be bourgeoisie pearl-clutching. He is not only ok with lady deacons; he's ok with lady priests. He's fine with LGBTQ inclusion and blessings, ending priestly celibacy, giving communion to divorced and remarried people, and wants to work on climate change. You thought Francis was "woke"? Hollerich will make him seem like Naptime Jorge in comparison. This is not going to happen unless there's a particular mood that day. But we've seen stranger things.

Rational follows below:

Universally, it's known that 80% of the cardinals are Francis-appointed. The new guy is likely to be a Francis guy. I do not anticipate a conservative swing in the election; I don't see them undermining the outreach Francis has done. They may not push certain items forward, but they aren't going to turn back and reverse course. So I don't think Erdo of Hungary or Burke of the United States have a shot. The Church struggled with keeping youth and the marginalized prior to Francis. Francis has brought in new Catholics at a surprising rate -- surpassing JP II in the non-European world. More Catholics means more priests, which the Church does need; the Church has had a problem with dwindling and aging populations of monks, nuns, and priests since World War II. The cardinals aren't going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs: for the Church to survive, it must remain relevant and real to people. Francis brought that back, after JPII's declining years and B16's theologian tendencies.

I know there is some rumbling and excitement about the African cardinals, such as Sarah of Guinea, Turkson of Ghana, and Besungu of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The first African pope in 1500 years! However, we must understand that the most conservative part of the Church is in Africa. They are not big Francis fans, particularly for the LGBTQ outreach, but also surprisingly reluctant to permit married priests or give communion to divorced or remarried Catholics. Some quarters of the Church may be on board for this, such as the Americans, but most of the Catholic world trends toward Francis and his progressive approach. The Church needs to grow and change to survive.

One of the first things Francis took a hammer to was the conspiracy of silence surrounding sex abuse. One of the thing all of the cardinals agree on: the Pope cannot be tainted by the sex abuse scandal. He cannot be an offender, an enabler, or someone who helped with the coverup. So if you look up a cardinal and they in some way are being critiqued for how they handled sexual abuse, their chances at becoming pope are lower than someone who was either blowing the whistle or actively investigating…or just wasn't involved because they were too young to have power at that time. (We do have some cardinals in their 40s and 50s, such as Mykola Bychuk of Australia via Ukraine and Jose Mendonça of Portugal.) Parolin has had recent questions pop up; prior to this week, he seemed clean. Prevost and Aveline have had some questions, which is why I've not taken an interest in them here. Tagle had some critique against him, but that rapidly fell apart, particularly when the existence of the 2003-2005 era documents were pointed out to the all-too-eager press.

The one conservative thing that will happen this election: Italian pope. The last non-Italian pope prior to John Paul II in 1978 was Adrian VI from England, serving for less than a year. We've now gone nearly 50 years without an Italian pope (John Paul I was the last; JPII was Polish, B16 was German, and Francis was Argentinian). The cardinals may feel the urge to 'go home', even if they're going more global otherwise.

[pettirosso1959]

Ieri il sindaco di Bologna, il vescovo di Bologna, che già si vedeva papa, e Prodi, che passava di lì per caso, sono andati alla preghiera per la fine dell'ambaradan (Ciccì Coccò).

Le vie delle città sono piene di maranza, di barbaciabatte che costringono le donne a indossare il velo quando non lo chador o il burqa.

Maranza e barbaciabatte che stuprano per sport e accoltellano per hobby.

Però mi raccomando farsi i seghini a due dita perchè gli americani glie stanno a fa er mazzo ai "sottanoni"...

[Semicit. F. Tedeschi]

[lovelysheree]

I finally got to reading @zuppizup‘s story, And They Were Zoom-mates. And now I’m a big fan. Callum and Rayla have such a great dynamic in it!