#without even snapping

[usedtobethelegendcreator]

Alastor’s most terrifying power

Okay, there are two posts I want to make about this with very different tones, but the same pictures, so I’m just going to combine them.

1.

“Vox can turn into electricity” this, “Valentino’s saliva is an aphrodisiac” that, how about we start being scared and worried about the guy that literally causes glitches in reality? Do you have any idea how terrifying that would be if you were there, instead of just watching it?

Like, imagine you say something impolite to some random guy at the store and he pulls THIS out of his ass:

I don’t know about you, but I’d get the fuck out of there. Yes sir, sorry sir, please don’t kill me sir.

The Vees are fucked. No contest. Vox would threaten the hotel one (1) time before he starts glitching around the edges and he’d fuck right off.

2.

I’ve seen a lot of theories about how Alastor killed those Overlords. Did he have angelic steel? Did he eat them? Did he trap them in the airwaves? Are they trapped in a pocket dimension?

And despite what I might personally think, it’s time to consider that maybe, just maybe…we’ve already seen how he did it.

What am I talking about, you ask?

This. This right here.

He glitched them out of reality. They no longer exist. End of story.

Because, as I stated above…causing glitches in reality is honestly one of the most terrifying abilities ever.

And Alastor has that ability.

And it comes so, so easily to him.

Almost like he’s practiced it.

[bonefall]

Splashtail and Atheism

Hello. I am an Atheist and I call Splashstar an Atheist because he is based on widespread bigoted depictions of godless people like myself. There have now been several posts about this written as if they're trying to "correct a misconception," and I am tired of vagueposts completely missing the point of the criticism to get caught up on arguing semantics.

The misanthropic, god-hating "Atheist" character in Christian propaganda, which I feel Splashstar has some alarming similarities with, does not come from the writer's correctable "misconception" of irreligious labels. It is born from a hatred of nonbelievers.

Specifically, my point that Splashtail is a mashup of two popular anti-secular tropes common in religious media;

The assertion that there's no such thing as a "real" nonbeliever, and that Atheists are just "rebelling" against God because we're mad at him, want to do bad things without guilt, or have "lost our way."

The belief that morality itself stems from faith in a higher moral being, asserting that the irreligious are "evil" in contrast to the faithful.

Even passing familiarity with the arguments of Christian apologia seen in Chick Tracts, Pureflix films, PragerU videos, and so on, will have put these tropes in front of you. They are false and harmful, and they target Atheists.

For more on this, TVTropes has an entire article dedicated to the Hollywood Atheist and its sub-tropes. Note how many of these Curlfeather and Splashtail fall into, regardless of if you're arguing that they are "real atheists" or not.

Those that hate us do not care about semantic labels. To them, we are without God, A-Theistic, and they do not actually care what is at the core of your beliefs if it contradicts their narrative.

But, even worse, the "Splashtail Can't Be An Atheist" crowd isn't even totally correct on the semantics they're trying to have a pedant battle about.

Most atheistic organizations and online atheists define Atheism as "one who does not believe in God" and attempt to push a sliding scale of "agnosticism" on how hard of a "maybe" you're feeling about your lack of faith. In the sliding agnostic scale, Agnostic Atheists are a "probably no god" and Gnostic Atheists are a "definitely no god." Others describe that scale as "hard" and "soft" Atheism-- but there is NOT universal agreement on that definition.

There other definitions of an "Atheist," and even those who reject the "agnostic scale" completely (I am one of them). "Atheism" was historically the catch-all term for what we might now call "Irreligious," and more.

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy explores its many meanings, and proposes that what defines an Atheist is an active choice to distance oneself from faith; "Someone who rejects the premise of gods either based on lack of belief, or meaninglessness of the question." Matt Dillahunty, a prominent educator and activist, intentionally refers to himself as an Atheist when others (including religious people!) have tried to pressure him into using the label Agnostic, for reasons he covers in great depth. Historically, "atheist" simply meant anyone who denied the gods or acted impiously, evolving into use as a broad label for irreligious practices around the 1500s, until attempts to narrow it to "nonbelievers in deities" in the 1800s.

By EoP's expanded definition alone, Splashstar qualifies as an Atheist. The rejection does not have to come from a belief that Theism is false, but that the question is meaningless. He doesn't have to "believe" in StarClan any more than you have to "believe" in a total stranger. He rejects faith in it and lives without their influence.

But even more than that, "atheist" is a broad, stigmatized term with a history you can't erase. Hundreds of combinations of philosophies, spiritual beliefs, and logical positions have been called "Atheism."

"Atheist" can refer to Agnostics (those who aren't sure if there is a god or not), Antitheists (opposition to the belief in and/or worship of gods), Igtheists (those that feel that "god" is such a nebulous term that the question of belief is meaningless), Apatheists (people who just don't care), practitioners of Non-Deistic religions (such as Humanistic Judaism and some sects of Buddhism), and even heretics who spoke against religion like Diagoras of Melos (gay guy who chopped up a statue of hercules and used it to bake beans. king.)

In a fantasy universe where gods are provably, visibly real, the term "Atheist" is going to look a lot more like those historic and expansive uses.

Unless you want to argue that "atheism" by the narrow, popular definition of "believing in deities" can't exist in such a setting. So, arguing that Cloudtail stopped being an Atheist when he saw demons in OotS, in spite of this not affecting his spiritual practices. Or, dancing around using one uniting term, you could specifically say Curlfeather is a Misotheist, Splashstar is an Antitheist or Agnostic, Mothwing is Deist, etc.

You could have a discussion about how applicable these words even are in the setting. Or make up terms that satisfy yourself. You could do this forever. But I choose not to.

I think it's counterproductive to push people to learn a bunch of terms for hyperspecific branches of irreligious philosophy just to discuss clear anti-secular sentiment within the text of a book, actually. Or push people to abandon a useful word because fantasy isn't exactly the same as real life. Functionally, imo, all of those aforementioned cats are Atheists within this setting, living "without god" by rejecting belief-- and many of them invoke real world bigotry, with tropes much older than WC itself.

So the simple fact is; Calling Splashtail an "Evil Atheist" immediately communicates the narrative tropes I am criticizing.

Either by authorial accident or on purpose, Splashstar's lack of morality being tied to his rejection of StarClan invokes the demonized atheist trope, very much like the ones seen in PureFlix's God's Not Dead or Jack Chick's The Last Generation.

All the arbitrary wishing that the terms were more narrow and exclusive will not change the reality that those characters are intended by bigots as atheists. The terms of the discussion reflect that. Trying to tut-tut the fandom for calling a spade a spade is a smug way to phrase you completely missed the damn point.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

Evo wanda doodle from my cell at the christmas party

[luna-the-cretar]

Picture this, if you will

One day, at Carnivale Lecroux, Frost is on a ladder or something, trying to hang up decorations. Gricko is helping hold the ladder, but then Hootsie runs off or something, and Gricko runs off after her, accidentally kicking the ladder in his wake.

So the ladder is unstable, and just as Frost is about to fall, Torbek (who is always lurking, and is just never noticed) happens to catch him. They stare at each other in pure astonishment for a moment, before Frost says “…hello…”

Gricko, hearing the ladder fall, immediately turns around and goes “Frosty! Are you okay!?”, running up to Frost (who Torbek is setting down now, not saying a word). Frost assures Gricko that he’s fine, and he goes to turn around to thank this mysterious bugbear who saved him, but Torbek is nowhere to be seen (back in the shadows, as always).

A week later, when Frost pulls out decorations to hang up, Torbek emerges from the shadows, immediately offering to hang them instead. Frost is like “it’s you! I didn’t get the chance to thank you for saving me last time.”, and Torbek more or less waves him off. “It’s fine,” he says, “Torbek is used to it.”

Frost asks for his name, and Torbek gives it. Frost accepts his offer to help with decorating, and they become friendly with each other. I wouldn’t necessarily say friends, no, but on the rare occasion they cross paths, Frost gives him a friendly smile, maybe chat a bit if they have time, and hey! At least he actually remembers Torbek’s name!

[jon-sedai]

And remember kids, the next time someone tells you, "George R. R. Martin wouldn't make Jon Snow the typical fantasy hero because that's cliche".....

Oh yes he would!

One viewer wants to know what character would you play (on the show)? GRRM: If I could magically clap my hands and become a different person, it would be cool to play Jon Snow who's much more of the classic hero. Everybody wants to be the classic hero! ABC Interview, 2014

GRRM: And the character I’d want to be? Well who wouldn’t want to be Jon Snow — the brooding, Byronic, romantic hero whom all the girls love. Meduza Interview, 2017

In fact he already has ☺️

[repressionmd]

me @ javadi: quit your job change your name trans your gender disappoint your parents and LIVE A LITTLE!!! PLEASE!!!

[dirtytransmasc]

ATLA! Avatar au ramblings, cause I need them out of my skull:

[Disclaimer: this is basically just Avatar, but if there were benders. there are no rules. god is dead. I wear his crown. we go by my rules now, even if they break atla canon. canon is a suggestion now]

each clean tends to be made up of benders from two of the elements, people from the clan can carry both traits, even if one is dormant.

for example, the Omatikaya are made up of earth and airbenders. both Mo'at and Eytukan were airbenders, yet their daughter Neytiri was an earth bender, and Sylwanin was also an air bender.

Humans are rarely benders, at least compared to the Na'vi, as the destruction of Earth led to the loss of benders, but when they are benders, they have only been fire benders. this includes avatars. the RDA specifically targets and recruits fire benders.

Fire benders are rare on Pandora. very few clans produce fire benders. and with the destruction the humans and the RDA have caused, fire benders are almost taboo, especially in the forest clans that faced the brunt of their efforts.

Jake is a fire bender, he is heavily disconnected from the idea of spirit, fluidity, or nature within his bending. it gets better as he lives with the Omatikaya, but old habits die hard, so he'll ways be a messy fire user, and his fighting style is messy, MMA like, the reckless assault of a soldier and not an art. he doesn't truly incorporate his bending into his day to day life either, it's like a gun to him, not a part of his spirit and being.

Neytiri is an earth bender (and in my world, they can bend plants, because fuck you). while she is known for her combat on Ikran back, she is just as deadly in face to face combat, as she is a heavily offensive fighter, and she will punch you in the throat with a dagger she pulled from the earth. but in a more casual day to day, she uses it to get around the forest, to weave and craft, to cook even. she makes something solid like stone and wood look as fluid as air, and something as delicate as plant life look deadly and jagged. and as a healer she uses it not only to cultivate and refine healing plants, and even bone bend.

a fire bender and an earth bender, have 3 kids:

Neteyam is an earth bender, he presented quite young, maybe 5 or 7, and he takes after his mommy, with the added aggression of Jake's fire bending attitude. he inherited less of his mother's likeness to plant bending, but can magma bend extremely well for his age, keeping that same fluidity. but as much of his life is taken up by combat and training, he's also a crafter and has plenty of little siblings bringing him rocks and asking him to make them beads, so he's also doing a lot of that. (he has attempted to bend a tree fort into existence and fell through it and on his ass, trust, I was there)

Tuk is an air bender. she's only presented around 7, and only in little gusts, so she hasn't cultivated an exact style, she can only really play with little gusts of air, or go gliding about on her glider, but only when a sibling is with her, in case she falls. she's also just an agile little thing.

Lo'ak (for angst value) doesn't present for a long while, he makes it to nearly 13 before presenting, and he ends up being a fire bender.... which did not help his self image, in any manner. not only is he the demon blooded son, the one that never lives up to Jake and Neteyam, who looks like a freak, but now he's a fire bender too? just shoot him now.

Kiri, the child of Grace, who was not a bender, and Eywa, is an air bender (she's already Pandora Jesus, I'm not putting her through being the Avatar as well). she presented at 5, it never seemed like a big thing to her. Neytiri found her floating and that was that. she is heavily connected to her spirit, so she can astral project, and her world, which makes her very hyper sensitive to her surroundings. she uses her air bending to carry stuff, be more spry (in the comics she tends to fall behind her siblings, even Spider, who is much smaller than her. her air bending gives her the leg up to help her keep up). even after she gains an ikran, she tends to go gliding or just. floating. for funsies.

that leaves my son, my baby boy, Spider:

I'm making him the fucking avatar because I can.

[more bullshit below, this is just very long and I'd feel bad posting this behemoth and clogging people's feeds]

he is Eywa's first Sky child, her golden boy, and he is the bridge between humans and Na'vi— he is Na'vi in all but body, and human in all but soul —so she knows if anyone can soothe the tensions ripping her world apart, it will be him.

he starts out as a fire bender.

no one is shocked, even though he gave off his first sparks as a toddler. his parents had both been fire benders— Quaritch had mastered combustion, and Paz was known to give off smoke when pissed —this gets him even more ostracized than he was in canon from the get go. no one wants much to do with the fire bending son of Quaritch. no one can truly trust him, even as a child.

who's to say when he will become the wildfire everyone assumes he will become? who's to say he's not dangerous, even as a child? especially without the help of a fire bending master to aid him (could Jake do it? yes. do I think Jake would commit to that long term? absolutely not).

despite this, the Sully kids are his siblings, from the moment they meet. he's their big brother, watching out for them, promising his flames as their shield, forever and ever. no one will ever hurt them. that they don't need to be scared of him, because he'd burn himself to a crisp before burning them. and his will is so strong, he's never accidentally burned them like he has others. his spirit knows better. it's strong enough to render the heat to nothing.

so the second Spider can leave the confines of Hellsgate and go out into Eywa's jungle, he is more than pleased to do so. he isn't judged there. the animals don't flinch away from him or stare at him like they're seeing secrets from the future.

he bends in secret, first with fire, just dancing a flame over his hands, slowly gaining trust in himself and his control, and developing his own style of bending, one similar to the airbenders of the clan, as that's the closest thing he has to go off of.

and if he has dreams of Toruk like creatures, showing him the art of fire, when he falls asleep in the grassy clearings of Eywa's world, he won't question it.

and when he hears whispers of 'try it' when he thinks of attempting to bend a different element, even just pretending, child's play, he listens, because he trusts the soft voice in his ear.

he bends air first. while not rare, those who bend air are considered special, connect to the spirit of Eywa. it's a sign. well, it would be had anyone paid enough mind to the boy to see it.

air bending comes naturally. he'd been watching those around him air bend for years. he'd mimicked their movements while playing with his siblings. it feels right. like it was what he was destined for (Eywa just needed time to manipulate his soul). it keeps him alive in the jungle, not only cause it allows him to take riskier paths and such, but also because it allows him without an exopack.

earth comes next. again. he'd watched earth benders for years. longed to manipulate the forest like them. to create instead of destroy. wanted to heal instead of heal. wanted to use brute forced over his flames, because his flames were looked at with fear, while the other boys trained their bending and were cheered on. he can work plants as if it was as easy as breathing. weaving them together into forts and hide outs and supplies.

water is last, and seeing as it's the opposite of his birth element, he has no mentor, and not even a faint clue on how it works, it is his weakest. but he has an affinity for healing, even if it only works on little cuts and scrapes, maybe a bruise if he's lucky.

by twelve he is mostly living on his own in the woods. it's near impossible to keep him in the compound anymore. he's not interested.

no one has any idea what he is. Spider can't even fully believe it himself and all's down spirals of thinking he's giving into his human greed, somehow (don't blame him, he's just a little guy, a dumb little guy who doesn't know maths, and grew up around people who all but hated him. let him have a dumb dumb complex).

the only people who have a slight idea are his siblings; he bends too much on instinct. he reached out to catch his siblings, shifting the ground beneath them just a tad, or shooting a vine around their ankle or using a swift puff of wind to stop their descent. he heals small cuts while thumbing over them, rolling a little bead of water on the broken or bruised skin. he brings them up into elaborate tree forts.

his siblings only keep from saying something because of the look of pure terror he gets on his face when he catches himself.

as time goes on, he becomes more open with them. by 15 it's common knowledge amongst them who and what Spider is, but he still won't let them tell the clan. but he has Kiri and Neteyam to help him with his air and earth bending, as they can regurgitate their own lessons back to him, which makes him stronger over all, even if he continues to use his own methods.

Jake and Neytiri only find out the night he was taken; when he gave his all to protect his baby siblings from the recoms, all fire benders, and exposed the level of power he held... and was subsequently taken for.

and then he gets adventures with his papa and the squad. that he is so so so so so happy about (kill him).

bonus info that doesn't fit into the vaguely timeline coherent ramblings above:

Spider is a healer by nature, it's in his heart and soul. so while he trains himself for combat, it's simply natural for him to want to fix things, to help people, to give himself and his power over if it means he can soothe one ache in his people. so Spider learns all of the healing arts he can. he develops his own even. refines bone and blood bending to heal people. uses the scientific understanding of things that he picked up as a human to make better medicines, etc.

speaking of blood/bonebending. my boy is going to snap at some point during his captivity and fuck some people up with that, because he knows the dogs of the RDA deserve it. perhaps it's after Neteyam's death that triggers it. or maybe the Tulkun hunt/attack on the Ta'unui. it's something, something that has him going in a carnage spree.

he will train with Mo'at and Ronal when they find out about him. Mo'at will knowingly pass him over — she knew early in he was special, but knew, in terms of his learning, the forest was not his place, for there was too much pain. but she would watch out for him as she had his whole life, in her own ways — while Ronal will become one of his footholds in life. a place where he will always feel like he can drift back to.

~~~

that's all I have for now. it's a shit ton. I have maladaptive daydreamed part this point, but I'll probably be back on my bullshit eventually. I'll have more on Q and the water tribe and what not.

[dykedvonte]

The second fic idea is a what-if scenerio where Jimmy dies in the crash due to and altercation with Curly and how Curly would navigate being Captain once he has to notice the little things and how he and Anya's relationship develop as he adopts an identical view point to hers rather than just keeping the peace.

And maybe i will write it but only time will tell tbh but it's stuck in my brain dome for the time being.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

it doesnt need to be said but its genuinely so funny how at-the-hip charles and erik are in krakoa like they really had the green light- the OBLIGATION- to be as obnoxiously close to each other as possible and abused that right to the fullest extent

[pinkytoothlesso11]

Hi Pinky, do you think. Barbara is a great mother to Jim? I see quite a few people who think she is bad mom because what happened when Gave Jim the Slient treatment and While i agree and understand that some of them its more for personal thing. I dont think it made Barbara a bad character. i do think it her a flawed mom, but not an awful one.

What do you think

Hmm its a hard question to answer honestly. Because obviously Barbara and Jim love each other deeply and there's plenty of care there in their relationship.

Giving Jim the silent treatment when it was very clear that he was in some kind of trouble and that going on for MONTHS was very inconsiderate and stubborn of Barbara however. She should have read the letter Jim wrote her. But honestly this feels less the fault of the character and more the fault of the writers. At this stage they were very determined to keep Barbara out of the know. It feels OOC a bit to me, having her discard such obvious warning signs as a doctor, since those letters were kinda giving the vibe of a suicide note.

It's also made worse that Barbara is already a absent mother who spends most her time working... I think she was so used to Jim behaving and being perfect all the time that him supposedly acting his age as a teenager threw her off badly, as she didn't need to really establish mum rules before then.

Jim is also out of line with his behaviour, though Barbara didn't have the tools available to deal with it is the problem. It's not really either of their faults, but I do think they're not as close to one another as the show seems to make out. If Jim trusted his mum completely, he wouldn't have kept Trollhunting a secret. Even in season three he tries to hide everything from Barbara! Even saying that the hospital gave her sick leave and that's why Barbara was making up stories about trolls when she tried to tell the other parents the truth!

Jim and Barbara are both flawed characters, but that also makes them more realistic. (Obviously they're cinnamon rolls compared to like Strickler lol, but you get my point).

[kangals]

Kep unexpectedly got a chance to score himself an A+ grade in Being A Collie tonight!

I let the dogs out for the last potty and suddenly Keps tearing off after what’s obviously a rabbit he startled. Now my yard is the ONLY one on our street that’s fenced but rabbits just fucking love to dig in under the gate and fuck up my flower garden, so I hate them. And this rabbit is clearly so panicked it forgot where it came in, because it’s racing in laps around the yard and slamming into the fence to try and escape. This goes on for a good 1-2 minutes and Kep is tailing this thing like a gd coursing hound, he is INTENT (Stellina also chased but visibly lost interest halfway through once the rabbit kept repeating its laps). And then finally the rabbit just freezes in some brush along the back fence in sheer panic/exhaustion… and Kep just stands there, looming over it, muzzle punching it. Not biting, not pawing. Just “hey, move.” now I don’t particularly care what happens to this rabbit but I’m also not the kind of asshole who let’s my pets torment wildlife so after it clearly wasn’t going to move anymore I picked up Kep and carried him back to the house, which he was quite miffed about. Hopefully bunny catches its breath and remembers how to leave the yard overnight.

but I am proud of Kep, because that was exactly what a collie should have done! Herding drive = prey drive, the only difference is that in herding dogs their drive is modified to be fully stalk-chase and no catch-kill (as compared to a dog like a greyhound, whose drive is (CHASE-catch-kill). But a herding dog who bloodies the livestock is useless, so that’s bred away from. Maybe he would try to bite if he were older, or if it was a rat or mouse as opposed to a (comparatively) large rabbit. But he showed excellent collie instincts and I definitely need to test him on sheep once he’s a bit older.

[altschmerzes]

i’ve reached the amatonormativity breaking point. i want to crawl into a cave and never experience shipping or jokes about how athletes on the same team who play well together Have to be in love or snide comments about Just Friends or the inevitability of And Then They Get Together forcibly stapled onto every single character dynamic or calling other people’s relationships into question because you think they’re too close to Not be In Love with each other or whatever else the world chooses to throw at me again. there is never any making it stop or even making people think for a second before barrelling headfirst into doing this constantly and without regard for what they’re reinforcing or shitting on as long as they get to have their fun. I’m Sick Of It. ive seen enough and im crawling back in the dirt like some kind of aromantic groundhog GOODBYE.

[arsenicflame]

ANGELA/SERA FROM THE MARVEL SNAP HERO ANIMATIC

[dragonslovecoins]

Wowie, everyone is arguing in my household again! Happy Thanksgiving everyone 😃

[the-lark-ascending69]

Need more flayed Robin. Robin being possessed completely. Sweet, funny, intelligent little Robin slowly being replaced by a monster before everyone's eyes.

Bonus points if people take ages to figure it out and they just think Robin is becoming a piece of shit person who makes people feel bad on purpose. He makes her break people's hearts and hurt her loved ones. The real Robin is screaming in silence, desperate to tell them that's not her, that she didn't meant to say that.

The only one who suspects this may not be Robin is Nancy. She has no proof and no doubts either.

[luxraydyne]

idk it's such a very small thing but "maybe you killed her with renju." "don't be ridiculous!" is very cool very epic i think. credit to both voice actors bc i believe that, their whole past and future entanglements aside, hitomi just fucking despised date for a second there to be honest