heptafobia

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gato engualichador de la buena suerte, auxíliame

gato engualichador de buena suerte . porque lo necesito (tírenme buena suerte porfa y gracias)

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Two movies I like

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big fan of these photos I took with a fisher price camera when I was like 8

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Name: Needlenose

Debut: Sonic the Hedgehog CD

You know me! I love funny flies, and I love funny robots! And who else but The Good Doctor Eggm'n to supply me with the goods? We meet in a dark alley in trenchcoats, and he slips me a mechanical mosquito.

Needlenose is, quite frankly, a perfect cartoon mosquito! If you want to depict a Fantastic Funny Fly, you need big ol' eyes, wings, and a proboscis, with a negligible amount of body to keep it all together. And if it's a mosquito, the proboscis must be pointy, of course! If I can't be punctured by it, it is a subpar mosquito!

Needlenose is such a perfect name for this thing. Look at it! Yeah. An insect's proboscis is not actually its nose, of course, but if you think "Needlenose" is not a good name for this creature, then, well, a ghost is going to get you. Sorry, but you would deserve it.

Needlenose isn't here to take any of your blood. It's not even here to inject any strange substances into your bloodstream. It's just here to administer a Pesky Poke! Yeowch! But at least the needle looks rather pristine and sterile. There are worse things to be stabbed by, I suppose. Now, there is something you need to knows, about this needle nose!

So far, we have been looking at the typical Needlenose, seen in its ideal form. In the Bad Future, however, it has evidently gotten into some sort of non-lethal scuffle, causing its needular nozzle to become bent! Maybe it crashed into a rock at high speed. I don't know. But at least the rest of it is still in working order!

I may adore the base Needlenose design, but the simple act of bending its proboscis a bit gives it SO much character. From little more than a tool, to a bug with backstory! It makes me imagine Needlenoses bending their noses on purpose in unique ways, as a form of self-expression. What a lovely thought!

Needlenose is so simple, yet so instantly charming, and many artists know it, because it has appeared in many official comics! This one here was reprogrammed to be helpful, so it's like a Goodnik! The 30th anniversary comic has some among a crowd of Badniks trying to destroy Sonic in order to give Eggman a very happy birthday. Even when they're objectively evil, you just have to love little Needlenose!

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conclave is so good it's like. what if you were catholic and suicidal and suddenly you became important at work but all your coworkers suck and hate you and then a beautiful angel shows up and there's also a guy there vaping all the time. cardinal lawrence should have started biting people.

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Not me scrolling through the Conclave tag only to see no one talk about the deliberate positioning and framing of the women in this movie.

Pulling up this movie I completely expected to only encounter Sister Agnes as the one woman we see in the trailer, the conclave a space that has been kept from the female members of the church. Now, color me surprised when I started the movie and most of the establishing shots we got were focused on all the women working in the Vatican.

And it is such a deliberate choice, it does the film a disservice not to talk about it.

Because while Cardinal Lawrence is having his fifteenth breakdown during sequestering and Bellini finds the ambitious asshole within himself, Ray does all the leg work, and Bel---- we see the women work.

We see the kitchens, we see them cook, we see them stand aside. Most of the time when the Cardinals are conspiring it is the women who interrupt because they are busy working, walking, running errands.

And there is power in that.

I think it is very deliberate how often (and with such lingering gaze) the camera shows us the lives of the other half - partially to connect to the wider themes of the movie, on how Bellini asks for women to get more power but never thanks them, and how Benitez stumps them all by thanking the women preparing their meals when asked to say the prayer (considering his own probably tumultuous relationship to gender within the church).

But it also stands in direct opposition to a long tradition in story telling: servants don't exist. How often the heroes of a regency romance are "alone" because the two hand maidens and three maids don't really count.

Conclave doesn't do that.

It doesn't let us look away.

Between all the petty drama, the politics, and the real life consequences of the conclave, we never stop looking at the people doing all the work.

Yes, we follow the ups and downs of Lawrence and Co, but in doing so the movie reminds us again and again of the women working the kitchen.

And that was just such a powerful artistic choice in a movie about a famously misogynistic church... I loved it. And I had to talk about it.

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LET’S HAVE A CONCLAVE

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grant us a Pope who doubts 🕊

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Alright. I'm calling it done before it kills me. This is Second Head. It's an Art Book containing instances of the phrase "second head" in fanfics found on AO3. I'll explain much, MUCH more in the cut.

So when I say 'art book', I mean this is an intrinsic piece. I have no motivations aside from personal amusement and interest in outcome. A lot of money was lost/transmuted into free frustration in this project and I have no claims, obviously. I will prolly be the only person alive to read this.

THAT SAID. I have noticed in my years reading fanfic, there's a few linguistic shibboleths that arise in authors who also have experience in the mines. I think there's not a soul alive who hadn't wandered across a 'ministrations' when reading Narutos oral sexing. There's- Hold on. Here's some pix.

There's an impulse, I think, to in-group even when performing a creative act. A feeling that there are certain ways one Should go about the act, by virtue of seeing it performed that way. Especially so when 'training' at the act is often just Doing. Double Dog Especially when the act is exclusively for oneself with very little oversight. Which is to say, we make what we see and we make what we think we should make. At least, at first.

Now, I've been noticing 'grew a second head' (to insinuate surprise) in fanfic for some time. I've never seen it used Outside of fanfic. (Edit to add: I am not making the argument the phrase is from fanfic. Nor do I Believe it is from fanfic. Jesus Hopping Christ, people. That's not what this project is about.) That may speak to my own bad habits but it got me curious. So a friend and myself downloaded a mirror of AO3 from July of 2024. He did some code- Stuff to scan the mirror for "second head" and of the ~13 million works, ~70k (English) results were returned. That's a rounding error, honestly, but Far FAR more than I expected.

This book is 401 such examples that I personally selected for a variety of reasons. The number itself was arbitrarily chosen. Each page is separate fic, the roughly 300 words around our key phrase.

I don't think repetition or mirroring is a negative thing. I think it's quite charming. Nor do I think it's a sign of a 'bad' artist or 'bad' art. I think it's a signifier of personhood, of belonging, of enthusiasm. Of culture shared and wishing to share. I think it's real sweet. I always smile when I catch a 'grown a second head' in a work.

And it's really fucking funny when it's John Sherlock getting a sloppy toppy. Bless.

Edit: Fixed a very VERY funny error.

Edit: I am not making the argument that the phrase is exclusive to fanfic or, fucking forbid, FROM fanfic. I'm stating this Again because we skim here. Also- If you would like slamdunk my ass by stating the phrase predates the Internet or your GenX parents use it, please use 'sailboat' in your comment so I know you're specifically trying to kill me.

Edit Edit: You know what? Fine. I DO think this phrase came from fandom. I think ENGLISH came from fandom. I think YOU came from fandom. I think EVERYTHING came from fandom. The Sun, the Moon, the Seas- Fandom. Specifically Sonic Mpreg. The second head was Shadow the Hedgehog crowning. Congrats!

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Investigating

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What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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The fact that Fountain is pissing off trads over a 100 years later is so fucking funny

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SHAPE HELL

Yup.

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Rhino & tiger.

A few oils from a long time ago. Man I need to get back into oil.

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I'm sorry your writing strategy is WHAT?? I'm going to need a thorough explanation of this because I'm FASCINATED

[brian murphy voice] I DIDNT SAY ANYTHING WEIRD!!!

okay i did. but also! if it ain’t broke…

here’s how this crumbles cookie-wise. sometimes (as is currently the case) i feel like i am trying to hold onto a whole novel in my brain at once. this does not feel particularly good because the novel doesn’t belong in my brain it belongs Out There. so i make a very detailed outline and then i start at chapter 1, and i write to 100 words (give or take a few). then i move on to chapter 2 and write to 100 words. then to chapter 3 and so on until i have at least 100 words in each chapter. then once i’ve run through the whole book, i go back to the beginning and make sure each chapter is up to 200. then i’m usually in the Meat of each scene so i’ll get everything up to 500, then 1000, then 1500 and then usually i clock out of chapters around or just under the 2k mark.

this appeases the hyperactive part of my brain by making sure i’m never bored, and helps the project manager in my brain so i can keep track of many moving parts in the novel and also ensures that scenes at the end speak to scenes at the beginning since i’m (sort of) writing the whole book at once.

NOTE: sometimes i get lost in the sauce and write way past 100 or wherever im at, and that’s fine. it just means i probably skip that chapter during my next pass since it’ll be past my goal wc for each chapter of the run.

that is all. try it, if you want. i honestly don’t know how to write books any other way