#that bear for instance

[whatifbutnot]

Undated diary entry, Villa Diotari, Switzerland

I am at my last, I can do no more. We must leave, weather or not. My only hope is that there remains a sanatorium in Europe which news of us has not reached, that we might be taken in. Not only are my nerves most hotly strained, but the infamy of this place has grown to a degree which must surely end any hopes of returning to polite society. We will be forever pariahs, the subject of knowing looks and outrageous gossip. I truly believe we will never be able to return to our lives. Once the immediate scandal has died down, we must assume new identities in a place where we will not be discovered by our old acquaintances, maybe Patagonia, or the Dutch trading colonies.

The final extremity was the appearance of Augusta Mary, Byron's older half-sister. I had known her, lightly, during my earlier acquaintance with Byron, and recall finding her somewhat over-awing in her worldliness. It seems she had a corresponding sense of me, as something of an ingénue. While time has changed my feelings - if nothing else Byron's correspondence has rendered me knowledgable in the ways of the world - it appears she still sees me in the manner of a nut to be cracked from its husk and gravely masticated.

It started with her very greeting, which was much more physical than the moment called for. She took the opportunity to whisper a remembrance into my ear which was not in any way appropriate for one of my now married status. There followed a series of implications which betrayed her lineage, being the sort of suggestions that only a Byron would make. I warm even thinking of them. Thank God that Sophia truly is an ingénue, in her condition she could ill bear the anger that full understanding would have granted her.

No word would discourage her. If anything, resistance made her more outrageous in her behaviour, progressing from mere speech to physicality, the caressing of a hand, the touching of a knee. And then, during dinner, the placement of her stockinged foot in a place where only a wife's foot should be placed.

This cannot go on. Though I know I am strong enough to resist her brave physicality with its threat of robust and degenerate carnality, I fear that her determined assault may give me no choice in the matter. Even as I sit here writing this, Augusta Maria may be slowly removing her stockings, the concentration needed necessary leading her to bite her lower lip, in preparation of a further assault on my dignity. Even thinking about this makes my manhood warm with anger. No, no, I cannot place myself in a position where I might be unable to resist, perhaps tied down, being disciplined for my resistance, maybe being roughly penetrated in a way that only a wife should roughly penetrate a man. One's dignity and reputation could not bear it.

Tomorrow we will leave. Tonight, when Sophia has taken the draught I have made her and is securely asleep, I shall go to Augusta Maria to tell her of my escape and the failure of her plans.

I fear my masterpiece will not be completed. I shall leave it here with the memories of this place. On balance, I do not think I shall be too sorry to end the enterprise, I do not think the world is yet ready for the sort of work I was creating. It is too adventurous, pushes too many boundaries. I will leave Theodoric where he stands, having killed the villain but turning to find the body it not where he had slain it.

[valtsv]

i'm a disgusting little centrist when it comes to the was shrue's family real or fake question because to me that matters much less than the way it illustrates the experience of paranoid stress psychosis. like i never want a definitive answer because it just doesn't really matter. do you understand me. like. either way, they experienced that loss and heartbreak. they were confronted with an unflattering portrait of themself as a destructive absence in other people's lives, sacrificing human connection for sociopolitical status. they were exploited and had their mind fucked with and were made vulnerable to manipulation. answering that question makes no difference to the fact that what they experienced was real and horrifying to them. they were vulnerable and someone noticed and took advantage. there is no absolution nor satisfaction to be found in certainty, only further pain and regret. the end outcome is the same.

[ducktracy]

Were there any shorts that paired Bugs and Porky? Like the the only ones I can think of are from New Looney Tunes/Wabbit and I just know there had be shorts that starred just them before that.

OH MAN!!! OKAY. i'm going to preface this right now with: the answer is simple (tl;dr: barely, i'd say only one truly counts during the classic era) but the Porky and Bugs dynamic has become a side obsession for me within the past year or so, and i don't really have many opportunities to talk about it on this blog. so i will probably end up giving you way too much info than what you asked for. so there's the tldr above! and to reiterate it further...

SO. YES. to answer your question, they were occasionally paired together in the classics, but nothing really meaningful. Porky's Hare Hunt, which is a self-admitted rip on Porky's Duck Hunt, births a prototypal Bugs Bunny who could not be further from his fully realized counterpart... but there is a direct lineage.

this is the only short in the classics to have them actually talking to each other, and even then, proto-Bugs sounds nothing like how he would. i both count this one and don't, really... it's more interesting to count it, but, this isn't really Bugs. but as the title implies, it's all about Porky's attempts to hunt this screwy rabbit who keeps heckling him and slipping out of his fingers. it also births the Groucho Marx-ism of "of course you realize, this means war!" associated with the real Bugs, so there is that going for it!

interestingly, this model sheet surfaced a few months ago--Bob Clampett had said something in an interview about him helping out with the story for this one, and i always dismissed that as one of his "exaggerations" since he had a knack for making many mountains out of molehills, including his involvement in the origins of Bugs... but this does look like a Clampett or Clampett unit drawing, and the short was directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, whose style was markedly different... so, just thought that was interesting! never got to talk about this yet. this model sheet is more appealing than the whole cartoon!

there's also this from Hare-um Scare-um, which is another proto-Bugs short... very prophetic honestly

there's also Any Bonds Today, where Porky appears in the background alongside Elmer and has at least one line to help shill war bonds, but it's really Bugs' thing first and foremost and he's just sort of there to look pretty and rouse jingoism through being a recognizable and "reliable" face

BUT! the next true Porky and Bugs short in 1943, which is more relevant to your question. A Corny Concerto is really only the "true" short that pairs them together... and it's for half the runtime of the short, and neither of them say a word to each other LOL. but they're together in the Tale of Vienna Woods segment, and i HIGHLY recommend watching it if you haven't yet--extremely entertaining and charming, and paints a very interesting glimpse of what a Porky and Bugs dynamic would look like, had that been a thing. very antagonistic! Porky is hunting Bugs again, who's heckling him (again), coming to a climax where he fakes Porky out by pretending to die and then slaps him in a gag that makes it look like Porky is being a masher. normal stuff.

and thanks to this short i've fostered the headcanon that i think Porky and Bugs would absolutely detest each other if they were ever to interact and it gives me great joy to think about, and has been something i've been thinking about and concocting in my mind palace very much lately.

AND THAT'S REALLY IT FOR MAJOR APPEARANCES.. i talked about it in this ask, but the end of Porky Pig's Feat does make history by being the only time all the flagship stars appear together--Porky and Daffy are held prisoner in a hotel since they couldn't pay their rent, and they start reminiscing on how Bugs Bunny, the great cartoon star, would be able to get out of such a mess... and they try to get his help, only for it to reveal that he's stuck in the same situation! Porky doesn't say anything to Bugs/hardly regards him, but he does start the "gosh, if Bugs Bunny were only here" discussion... Bugs is really more like a godlike cartoon figure here rather than an actual character, and i see it more as a loophole for Frank Tashlin to work with Bugs, since he was very vocal about his disappointment in not getting to direct him often due to being low in the studio hierarchy and being "stuck with the damn pig" (rude!!)

and the last instance of them together that i can think of is a very brief part in the 1964 Dumb Patrol short (clarifying the date since there's a 1931 Bosko short by the same name): Porky in a silent cameo is slated to take down Yosemite Sam's warplane, but Bugs knocks him unconscious and steals his place because "he's got a wife and six piglets at home!" (...or, it's just a slightly more creative way of concocting exposition for what's a subpar Bugs and Yosemite Sam short)

and that's it for the shorts! ...so, surely, you're asking "okay, but why the long winded anticipatory introduction?" and to THAT! i say... because Porky and Bugs had a sort of double life and were very frequently paired in merchandising together.

Bugs was Porky's Daffy-figure in the comics, to the point where they were often the face of the comics together. usually a lot of stories revolving around Bugs trying to stir up Mr. Moral Goody Two Shoes Porky and get him in trouble, the two going on adventures together, or them just being buddies. it's... weirdly fascinating? the comics were often drawn and written by many of the same figures who worked on the cartoons, so it's a very interesting "what if" scenario that might give insight as to what it'd be like if we got more Porky and Bugs shorts

one of my all time favorite comic stories is an entire story about a big, convoluted misunderstanding where everyone things Porky wants to kill Bugs and they all try to stop him. the comics have been excellent fodder in fueling my "Porky just hates Bugs' guts" headcanon that i kinda just thought was me being funny, but has a weird amount of "evidence" for it LOL.

i mean Porky just goes straight for the ankle breaker here!

SO! they have been paired together in the past, but in a sort of strange, convoluted way. in terms of shorts there's very little, and the only time they ever talk to each other one on one is when Bugs is in his most primordial form. the comics and merchandising of the era paint more of a picture of what that dynamic could be like, but maybe a bit of a dubious one, since the characterizations and writing and general style of the comics are a bit different and more sanitized than the irreverence of the shorts, in both tone and format

[beartitled]

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[lesbianvaljean]

very striking that Hugo pulls back in lm 1.5.11 after several chapters of absolute brutality toward Fantine and wraps her up in the language of the divine. the chapter is titled Christus Nos Liberavit/Christ has freed us - it begins with talk of the "sacred law of Jesus" & ends with the word "God." Fantine's suffering and resignation here is seen not by the Church itself (no priests! no bishops! no candlesticks or sacraments!) but by God himself alone.

very much a chapter-length version of the parable: "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the misérables least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."

[wildflowerteas]

the red camellia is undeniably soukoku's flower to me. they bloom in the cold, through snow and winter chill. they're at their most beautiful in the harshest conditions when everything else is dormant or dead. they're a symbol of perseverance and strength and passion. but at the end of the line, they 'behead' themselves when they die, refusing to drop petal by petal, choosing to go when they're still beautiful, refusing to compromise the rest of the tree by rotting on the branch.

[crazysnakey]

Something something about the Third Doctor and the fate of Tantalus. You're trapped in one place. Everything you want, that you once took for granted is right there in front of you, you can see it you can reach for it but you can never have it. You will never attain it on your own. Your fate is dependent on the mercy or cruelty of others and you hate it and you rage against it but you can’t do anything, your defiance is treated like nothing but a childish tantrum but you refuse to beg, you won’t get that desperate no matter how long you’re trapped here, no matter how low you’re brought down. You stand among humans and you look human but you’re not, you’re an animal in a cage with them and you’re the only one who can see the bars. Gnawing and hacking at them to no avail. And yet all you can do is wait and hope and try and fail in an endless loop until an outside force interferes to free you from your prison. The carrot and the stick. How does it feel to be on the receiving end?

[randomnameless]

Checking Constance's Supreme support :

Constance asks Supreme Leader to help her restore her house, as soon as their C support :

It's a small thing regarding my house. I thought Your Highness might bend some slight effort toward seeing it restored from nothing.

Supreme Leader replies that given the present circumstances, she can't do a lot :

I had a feeling that was it. I wish I could help, but you must understand my present circumstances...

(even if we know that, by that time, she already was the one who appointed Emile in Hrym!)

So while Constance tries to impress her with her magic tricks like rainbow tea, Supreme Leader's support goes on more important territory :

Note the "I would like to talk with you about" that replaced the "I want to know".

It's more explicit in the jp version, but apparently, Supreme Leader tells Constance that she can expect more than "being an ally and a friend and getting along with magical research" if she... reveals her secret about House Nuvelle.

Otherwise, there's nothing she can do as the Imperial Princess?

The "if you expect more, you need to be prepared" really sounds like one of Fraud's lines : they will use their influence/help the other party... only if said other party reveals some piece of intel they'd like to know.

The explicit confirmation happens in the B convo :

I am ready to enlighten you regarding the secret that House Nuvelle has kept for generations.

The cat's out of the bag :

You have my gratitude. You will be rewarded for taking such a drastic measure.

Constance will receive, supposedly, Supreme Leader's help to restore House Nuvelle, not because they are friends and all, but only because she accepted to reveal the secret about Noa's crest.

I know it didn't came through the script and/or the playthroughs of FE16, but I'm more and more wondering if Fraud and Supreme Leader having similar methods - at least here - and sort of similar goals (I mean, for the ones involving the CoS and the evil lizard lady) wasn't something the devs banked on in FE16, which led them to write Nopes' Fraud the way he is written, but without his epiphany from the timeskip.

Something like, with Billy, Fraud stops being a bootleg copy of Supreme Leader and """grows""", but before, they're two peas in a pod - which is something Nopes highlights.

The JP version confirms that House Nuvelle isn't a, uh, very close-knit family, they marry people who aren't from their circle, but the "not bring Nuvelle's blood into other families" to me means that the children born of any union is a member of House Nuvelle, to make sure the Noa line wouldn't be spread out.

Granted, Supreme Leader already knew the secret of the House was tied to the crest of Noa, maybe it was something Uncle told her and she wanted confirmation? Or it was something shared in the Imperial Family?

Interesting... I always had the inkling that the six noble houses were eager to see House Nuvelle fall.

And yet, per Constance and Nopes!Lorenz's words, it was Ionius who ended the House, not any of the Six Great Houses...

Also, why would they want to get rid of House Nuvelle if it had little to no influence in Adrestia, nor allies?

Is the Crest of Noa so important - bar Chalice shenanigans - that it'd make other Houses upset? IDK.

but if the nuvelles are nabatean hybrids through Noa herself, it'd make more sense for Uncle or even Ionius to get rid of them

oh well, another thing left to the 10k years of lore.

[basedonconjecture]

There’s this tendency in character analysis to latch onto really granular sub-traits or facets of a character trait that only appear under specific conditions (and often in reaction to a narrative event) and apply it as a major personality trait. Which, sure, those are prime headcanon fodder to be explored and can be important for understanding the character in a nuanced way. However, a lot of the time, when those sub-traits are removed from the necessary context they appear in, they often make less and less sense the further away from the context you get.

This isn’t like a value judgment or whatever, but it is somewhat frustrating to navigate around if, for example, I’m talking about Character’s Major Trait #1, and someone else is talking about Character Sub-Trait 1.a and 1.b as if they’re on the same level as the former (and not, rather, facets of Trait #1 and requiring certain conditions and are much more interesting when taking into account how they act otherwise) and applying it with the same broad strokes to their understanding of that character. The latter also allows very little room for contradictory traits when they appear—which are where the crunchier aspects of a character lives. And like… it generally inhibits discussion on the whole.

[nabaath-areng]

Looking back, it makes sense that I have a thing for male characters whose beauty could start wars. After all, I was raised with stories including those about Näcken that in my area describe him as man so beautiful and with music so haunting that it lures people closer and to their drowning deaths.

Like if you're a queer freak from birth like me, the existence of a devastatingly beautiful naked twink playing violin in streams and riverbends to kill people WILL alter your brain chemistry forevermore.

[swordmaid]

thinking more about the partial illithid state I think the illithid powers would come innate to shri’iia after she transforms. it’s like she’s been casting them all her life, and she just simply needs to do them instead being taught. same with the telepathy and flying and everything the partial illithid state entails, the skillset just feels innate to her - as easy as breathing - despite her not even being a spell caster beforehand. she would not have any issues with the language anymore as well, that thing seems so trivial since she can now just understand and speak it as if it was her own mother tongue. like the illithid tadpole opening her mind to virtually everything that all of the things she struggled before just seems so insignificant. in this state she’s a more powerful and a much better version of herself, and wouldn’t she want to keep that? and this is just grazing the surface of her potential too, if she evolves further she can be so much more.

but at the same time, i also think she feels so out of place in her own body because she’s able to perform these amazing feats but it doesn’t feel natural to her. she’s a spectator inside her own body - she’s seeing herself become more powerful and all that but she feels more and more detached to her own self. there’s also a voice in the back of her mind - not the emperor’s - that’s tempting her to evolve all the way. look at how wonderful this is, and how powerful she is. this is who she really is - she never needed lolth, or her oaths, or anyone - this is what she can be and she can be so much more if she lets the tadpole to fully consume her - but then shri’iia has to remind herself that she only took this power out of necessity, and she does regret this transformation, and she’s only recently managed to reclaim her own independence outside of lolth she can’t bear to lose it again.

[not-spiders]

thinking about how i transitioned from Manic Pixie Dream Girl to Eccentric Weirdo

[sysig]

Cure for whatever ails ya (Patreon)

[widowshill]

r/v + matching outfits.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

You know, for as much as I didn't like all the romance soap opera drama and what happened with a lot of the ATLA cast in Legend of Korra, I can admit that just because it wasn't my thing and bothered me in a lot of instances doesn't make it necessarily bad per se. I just think there were some weird decisions character-wise

However. I did not like what they did with Wan and the Harmonic Convergence, and I am quite confident in saying that it thematically weakened the show and was a wasted opportunity to do something truly special with the concept of the Avatar itself

[queerlycarter]

ik my dad was simply following instructions and doing his due diligence BUT he did come home from picking up my meds and passed on the pharmacist's instructions

and said they really emphasized ONLY AS NEEDED for the oxycodone & it came with a packet to dissolve leftover pills

and i was immediately like oh don't worry i am taking as little of this shit as i can get away with so that i have a little stockpile for my next flare. im not giving this shit to ANYONE