#me taking deep breaths

[chocolate-cream-soldier]

....//

[webweabings]

BE STRONG, BE BRAVE

Poem “Problem Area” (2016), in Last Sext, by Melissa Broder; // Unknown; // “The Waves” (1931), by Virgina Woolf; // “Notebooks” (2017), by Tennessee Williams; // “Fast Car” (1988), by Tracy Chapman; // “The American Crisis” (1776), by Thomas Paine; // Quote by @maplepecanpastry /// Stills from “Joan of Arc” (1948), by Victor Fleming, starring Ingrid Bergman

[ghelullu]

"Why is Copia acting so silly and childish?!" "Why is he crashing out like this for no reason??" "Why is he so mean to his brother!" "Why is he so attention seeking??? Grow up!"

Because every parental figure of his we met (maybe except for Mrs. Psaltarian) has been constantly talking shit about him, being extremely rude and mean to him, refusing to acknowledge ANY of his achievements or his emotional needs at literally every opportunity and making him believe for years that they'll kill him like his secret brothers.

And when he finally had something he loves doing, with fans that adored him, they take that away from him to give it to yet another brother that he didn't even know he had - because no one ever tells him anything - without even an opportunity to meet his last surviving family member, hyping the guy up in a way they NEVER praised him.

Hope that helps.

[seventytwo-waterellens]

I am begging you guys to get your news from somewhere other than social media. Of course social media can be valuable, but it is NOT a replacement for actual news outlets that have reporters, researchers, fact checkers, experts to interview, and years of background.

Do not learn everything you know about Iran from tumblr or Instagram or tiktok. Information is important and accuracy even more so. No one is immune to misinformation and propaganda (from MANY angles) and we have to do better.

[seonghwacore]

240906 _starhwa_

[lostwords-found]

Oh no. Oh fuck. I am relistening to some of the earlier Protocol episodes, and I have a horrible, terrible, no good very bad suspicion about Gerry.

I could, I want to emphasize, be completely wrong! I could be wildly, hilariously, off the mark. But--hear me out. This is going to take some explaining about what I think is going on in the bigger picture worldbuilding stuff; hopefully it'll be coherent, but fair warning, it may get a bit long.

First: there have been a lot of cases that have boiled down to trying to keep only the "good"/desirable/etc aspects of things or events or people, and discard the "bad"/unwanted, right? We saw this happening very explicitly in episode 23 with Alesis Newman, and way back in episode 2 with Daria the painter, but a number of episodes have presented variations on a similar theme.

Two variations in particular that I've been thinking a lot about are the violinist in episode 4 and the gambler in episode 9. The violinist can play his violin beautifully, but he wants to be rid of the price in flesh and blood that it demands. Similarly, the gambler wants the rewards of rolling high on his magic dice, but wants to be rid of the misfortunes that come with rolling low. Crucially, both episodes make clear that in this type of balance--something unwanted for something wanted--you can't just make the unwanted piece vanish. It has to go somewhere, it has to happen. But you can make it happen to someone else, somewhere else. And when that's how the game works, one of the major questions for players who want to get ahead then becomes: "how do I make the bad stuff stay happening somewhere else, and keep reaping the benefits of the good stuff that balances it out?"

Here's where this gets wildly speculative and from here on I freely acknowledge that I may be talking out my ass:

I think the Magnus Institute was investigating that question. I suspect a great many alchemists before the Institute, probably going back to the times of Albertus Magnus, were investigating it as well. I think the Great Work they were attempting -- the "universal transmutation" alluded to in episode 21 as the Magnus Institute's aim -- was the exact opposite of Jonah Magnus's own "Great Work" in TMA. In other words, I think they were probably trying to make the world an eternal paradise, rather than an eternal hell.

But if you're getting rid of all the "bad" stuff, all the suffering and misfortune, it's got to go somewhere.

I think they were sending it through to other worlds.

I'm not going to get into all the reasons I think that right now, because that's a whole essay in itself, but basically--the Leitners in TMA? The artifacts? All the little bits and pieces of evil given physical form, that never had a clear origin point in the world where they caused so much suffering for so long? We've all been worried about them winding up here, post-Archives... but I think this is where they came from in the first place. I think they were sent away in the hopes that an increase in "bad" in other worlds would lead to an increase in "good" in this one. Remember all those books Albrecht von Closen found in the tomb in the Black Forest in TMA, that Jonah Magnus later stole and let loose on the world? Remember that Albrecht found a mysterious coin along with them dated 1279? Albertus Magnus died in 1280; I strongly suspect he sent those books from the world of Protocol to that of Archives shortly before his death, much as the world of Archives sent the tapes away centuries later. But I think Protocol's world kept sending things away, kept trying to export "bad" and import "good". Remember all those happy, laughing volunteers bringing strange and sinister items to the charity shop on Hill Top Road in episode 7? "All for a good cause."

Okay so. Now. With that bit of hypothetical framework for Protocol's worldbuilding in place, let's next go back to Alesis Newman of episode 23. Her expressed wish is to create a new her. "Someone better. Someone the pain can't touch." Someone who can be everything Alesis wishes she could have been. Someone "free of all (her) mistakes."

But increasingly it sounds like what she actually wants isn't to create someone new. It is to create someone who is only a part of her current self. Someone who, she says in one of her last few posts, will "just be the good parts of me."

And if that's the case, if what she's really trying to do is make someone who holds only the "good" parts of her, someone who can be happy and strong and perfect and loved by everyone forever... what happens to the bad parts of Alesis Newman, as she currently exists? What about the parts of her that feel pain and fear, the parts of her that make mistakes, the parts of her that she rejects?

One might assume, from the experience she narrates, that those pieces of her are simply being destroyed. But that doesn't line up with the suggestion we've seen from earlier episodes that there has to be some kind of balance maintained in these bargains. What she actually says is happening to her--and what the forum members have apparently told her will happen, through this process--is that she and this "new her" are "becoming one... and then two."

I don't think the "bad" parts of Alesis Newman are dying. I think they're also going to become a "new her"--they're just going to go somewhere else, somewhere the new, happy, strong, perfect version of Alesis Newman never has to see them.

Still with me?

Okay.

Now let's talk about Gerry. Let's talk about the smiling, laughing, irrepressibly happy Gerry Keay we meet early in Protocol. Gerry who seems to have everything that the Gerry Keay of Archives was denied.

Gerry who underwent tests at the Magnus Institute as a child, and who, per the static over his and "Gee Gee's" words, holds a few more secrets about what went on there than he let on to Sam and Celia.

Back when I first heard Gerry's appearance in episode 8, it sure felt like a narrative gut punch: This is who he could have been in Archives, if not for the presence of the Fears. This is what Jon and Martin's final decision threatens to destroy--for this safe, happy version of Gerry, and for everyone else in his world.

I'm now suspecting it might be significantly worse than that. I think the Magnus Institute might have done to Gerry Keay something similar to what Alesis Newman later did to herself: made him New. Kept only the good parts--ensured a happy, comfortable, good life for him. In which case, all the bad stuff--all the parts of Gerry Keay that would ever have to suffer from bad luck, to feel pain and fear and misery...

...well. They'd have had to go... somewhere else, wouldn't they.

Which would suggest I had the causality the wrong way around the first time I heard Gerry's appearance in Protocol: maybe it's not "Gerry has a happy life in this world because he didn't have to suffer everything that the Gerry Keay of Archives did."

Maybe it's "Gerry in Archives had to suffer everything he did because Gerry in Protocol was made to always be happy."

[cercledespoetes]

DC FANARTISTS. DROP JASON HEAT STROKE PHOTOSHOOT ART AND MY LIFE IS YOURS

alt versions under the cut btw 🥰

no blood ver and a little blurred

[multicolour-ink]

The way Mario's eyes dart up and down Luigi with that sheer look of relief on his face 😭

I'm still not over this ;_;

[slumberpartymakeouts]

on beatlestok if you ship mclennon they kill you

[chiyune]

whoa my hand slipped what happened

[christakisbang]

chanlix moments i think about a lot (9/?) - Channie's Room Ep.59

[turboducks]

almost definitely never going to clean this up so here is bro getting too attached (they are both bro)

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[casualavocados]

You've never done that when I got close to you before. Why? None of your business. Tell me, or you can't leave.

KISEKI: DEAR TO ME Ep. 10

[jakeperalta]

I truly believe I am a considerate and understanding person but I fear every day I am forced to work with my useless boss I am turning more evil and violent and rageful

[likesdoodling]

Guess what I just finished ehehehe >:D

Oh yeah- the 'I see your wife' was a bit hard to do so I just replaced it with the next best 'murderer plus innocence' parallel I could think of-

(and the tags I got to cover the last few bits got cut off, so I have decided to include the last minute of dramatic commentary here instead-

:(:( Alas alack~ poor Finrod-

Oh look it's Gondolin! And Maeglin too, fancy that. Wonder why he's there, anyway, moving on-

Fingon gets some more screentime, -and no. I am not naming the Balrogs involved. They don't deserve it >:(

And after that it's pretty self explanatory.

I mean.

If you know who Feanor and his sons are you probably get what's going on here. :'(

>:)

[qqquib]

so real! why does dream think people can’t make their own opinions! why is he acting like tubbo is not a grown adult who can make his own decisions and opinions!

“i think tubbo is just misguided”

why does dream get to say that? i don’t. understand. i’m really trying to be so unbiased here but the way he keeps implying that people can’t have their own opinion bc it’s not his, it’s not cool.

it feels so, as tubbo said, infantilizing. these people aren’t kids, they aren’t below below dream, they’re on equal footing.

i don’t like it :/

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co