#not a standalone post

[harbingrs]

cw: potential here for OCD contagion around moral themes, so feel free to skip

--

The idea that engaging with your interests with the right emotions determines whether it's ethical makes me think of the "reading warrior cats and shaking my head the whole time so people know I don't agree with outdoor cats" style meme

Except it's like "reading about a train crash and emotionally shaking my head the whole time to prove to the people observing me (myself) that I don't love death and dying"

And as someone with moral OCD I can firmly say that that level of self-surveillance and feeling like you'll slip into being a Bad Person without constant hyperviligence over your own internal experiences is very very unhealthy

Because moral uncertainty is very, very hard to navigate. Straightforward, blanket ethical rules and ways to 'negate' any risk of Badness are both extremely seductive and the building blocks of moral OCD.

Not the same topic, but definitely adjacent is "depicting Bad Things in media is always fetishistic or glorifying or endorsing and therefore unethical" culture. Because straightforward blanket ethical rules on are so, so seductive when we want an easy way to feel secure in our morality

But the reality is that depictions of the same Bad Thing can be exploitative and disgusting OR a powerful, incredible piece of art that will be talked about for centuries OR something else entirely (like a person's own life story, or a fictionalised version of it, even if it's objectively poorly written - because skill or literary merit is not a 'necessary redeeming' feature either). Sometimes a work does 'affect reality' in a harmful way but you cannot gauge this solely with a keyword search for Bad Topics and Bad Words

But it is really, really hard not to have an easy yardstick for morality. It's genuinely hard and scary to live with that uncertainty, knowing you need to weigh up so many other complex factors to gauge the ethics of any situation for yourself and you still might not have certainty about it (and the spectre of unresolved uncertainty is also what moral OCD is made of)

And "performing the right emotions about it" is also an easy way out. Like, the idea that you can resolve ALL the ethical questions around watching a Netflix murder documentary by feeling the morally correct emotions while you watch it (disgust for the alleged murderer, empathy and sadness for the victim, pride and satisfaction when the detective arrests the culprit and the individual is punished and 'justice is done', etc - not even delving into the uncritical acceptance of all those roles & the narrative itself and the harm that can do)

And I'm not saying 'it's bad to feel those emotions' either (especially when my point is opposing the whole concept of thought crimes and self-surveillance in general). But I strongly oppose the idea that feeling (or making sure you feel) the Right Emotions is morally redeeming or the solution to moral uncertainty

In general, I'm opposed to the concept of thought crimes/emotion crimes or hyperviligant monitoring of your own internal landscape for 'correctness'. I'm opposed to the moral yardstick of feeling the 'right' emotions (especially in the sense of empathetic responses) and the subsequent classification of /not/ feeling the 'right' emotions (or feeling anything at all) as immoral or inhuman

And I would be very wary of falling into the trap of surveilling your emotions on moral grounds, or feeling like you have something to prove with how you do/don't feel. Do you want moral compulsions because that's how you get moral compulsions

[gl0wf1shhhguy]

He’s practicing his “king face”

[shopwitchvamp]

For those who need it 💼🐀✨

[myuminji]

nightow can't handle the power a summer beach episode holds so he stranded them on an apocalyptic planet full of desert instead 💔

[marsoid]

When the cult leader that’s been trying to steal your car confronts you and he’s got fire coming out of his hands and his big tits are out and he’s really scary. Relatable

[mumblesplash]

part 2!!!! [read part one here]

transcript below the cut arranged into stanzas to help show where the rhymes are:

“that’s why they brought gem in? as a failsafe?” as a pawn. we were told to point her at whoever we need gone

“gem won’t hurt her allies. …yet.” the curse she carries will it’s had its eye on her since she lost the other eye she was specially selected for her hunting skill it’s quite the high honor. “wow. how generous.” we try

think about it: why does almost no one fight the curse? “given how fast scott killed skizz last season, i can guess.” [“any pain you spare your friends, you’ll have to suffer worse”?] it’s designed to shut down higher reasoning with stress

[rookflower]

[alicentsgf]

keep thinking about lottie saying "It never meant what you thought it meant" about the necklace. jackie saying "Now nothing can touch you" when she first gave it to shauna. because hasnt jackie kept that promise? hasnt the necklace protected shauna all along? didnt jackie and javi's deaths keep shauna fed? wasnt shauna wearing the necklace when she gave birth? wasnt nat wearing it when she kept the cabin fire burning to keep them warm? when she led them into a little golden age so prosperous they were wasting food and playing games? wont coach bens death ultimately lead to them being home and safe again? every time the necklace changes hands it coincides with an action that keeps shauna alive. lottie's right, shauna doesn't understand what the necklace means but maybe that makes sense. she never really understood jackie either. jackie loved her and yet shauna chose to see only bad intentions, just like she does with the necklace. when it comes down to it maybe there is no wilderness, no nature spirit or god. maybe it was always just jackie.

[starry-bi-sky]

a half-ghost--? no- no wait, that's a changeling. that's even worse.

so i'd like to preface this by saying this stems from me going entirely off the rails thinking about tales of the passerine-- which is frankly quite on brand for me to think of one au, and then develop it so far left ways that it makes another au entirely.

bUT. Context! Danny's ancestors sometime before they immigrated to America had a fae marry into the family. This had its Side Effects. Naturally. The Fentonnightengale responsible for this charmed a fae thanks to their swagless nature and awkward demeanor, so instead of getting eaten the fae thought it was cute instead. The fae marrying into the family had an affinity for music, but that kinda repressed itself by accident -- blame the salem witch trials.

By the time Danny is born, the fae blood has become so latent that it really doesn't show up anymore other than the Fentons Eccentricity and obsession with the supernatural (a latent desire to return home to the fae realm - aka infinite realms). There's an unnatural charm surrounding the fenton that really only creeps almost every human within a visual radius, and Danny is no exception.

hoWEVEr. the accident that turned danny into a halfa in one timeline did no such thing in this one -- it just reactivated his latent fae blood, and reactivated it with a fervor. Effectively turning Danny from a human into a changeling.

Danny just thinks at first that he's a half-ghost -- only to realize later on from Clockwork that he's not one at all. He's very much fae -- which is a wild discovery for Danny to make. It also means his rogues are quite a bit more intimidated by him. Fae are above ghosts in the Infinite Realm Creature Hierarchy, no matter how powerful they are. A fae can still Steal the name of a ghost, so Danny's rogues are rather skittish/unsure around Danny until they realize he doesn't know he's a changeling -- after that, many of them vow to try and keep it secret amongst themselves.

Danny's 'ghost' form is rather birdlike, and in human form his appearance warps to match his comfortability. When he's alone with his friends he starts taking on unnatural features. -- his blue-green eyes brighten and his pupils elongate, his teeth sharpen, and his ears grow longer and animal-like. His hair softens to be more feathery, his nails sharpen. In general he takes on more 'bird-ish' features. At school, around his parents, and when he's stressed, tense, or scared, he looks completely human -- an instinctual survival mechanism.

As a ghost, he has large, pretty wings that gradient from black to dark purple-blue, with a shimmer across the feathers that resembles the aurora borealis. His limbs elongate, his legs becoming bird-like and his talons grow on both his feet and nails. His ears vaguely resemble a rabbit's, although they don't flop down like one. All his teeth sharpen. Razor sharp chompers, capable of biting through bone. His eyes take on a greenish-hue, but otherwise remain the same color, albeit his sclera becomes blue-ish and his pupils become diamond-shaped and white. Rings of seafoam blue circle around his iris, creating a reflective sheen. He makes chirping, creaking noises, and when he speaks there's a faint overlap that is very enchanting.

Overall he's rather beautiful in a terrifyingly inhuman way, its hard to take your eyes off him. He has a lot of feathers. He's very drawn to singing and music in general, and gets into music sometime after his accident. He likes flutes/ocarinas/woodwinds the most, followed shortly after by strings, and then piano. He also slowly loses the ability to lie -- which is really annoying and also terrifying until he learns how to reword himself and become a better wordsmith.

SInce this stemmed from an older brother dpdc au, its gonna stay an older brother dpdc au alsfh. i'll just get to the dpxdc part in another post since i wanted to get this off my chest first

[superfruitland]

what a fungi. another win for mycology nerds.

[shopwitchvamp]

[redgunkonacanvas]

quebecs most woke baby

[twinsfawn]

HUNTER SCHAFER SHOT BY BRYCE ANDERSON FOR GQ

[geezmarty]

so far at about 34 pages on the carmilla comic done. out of what I'm starting to think are going to be around 80. smiles and does a peace sign

[artilite]

some sopping wet napkins <333

[bonsiii-art]

🎶 For tonight, let us forget our worries 🎶