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[sexyrasputin]

Day 2 in the Middle School Time Loop: you remember that last time, everyone ignored you at recess because they were talking about a TV show that you hadn’t watched. This time, you lie and say you’ve seen it. They ask you who your favorite character is, and you don’t know any of the characters, and so you’re tongue-tied. They think you’re weirder than ever, or maybe a liar, which is worse (and true).

Day 3 in the Middle School Time Loop: you tell your parents that you feel ill. They let you stay home while they’re at work. You spend the whole day watching past episodes of the TV Show.

Day 4 in the Middle School Time Loop: Recess again. The same person asks you who your favorite character is. This time, you're ready. You eagerly tell them, and supplement your reasons for liking them with solid evidence from all 4 seasons of the show. But! Tough luck: you’re now too invested. The atmosphere turns uncomfortable. They go back to ignoring you like they did on the Day 1 that you didn’t know was Day 1.

Day 5 in the Middle School Time Loop:

You decide to try a different approach and update your style. You've noticed that Ashleigh, who’s blonde and constantly surrounded by friends, always wears pink stripey sneakers. You try wearing a pink dress. Someone says it’s cute, but you know from how they say it that it isn’t the good cute.

“I thought that pink was cool,” you protest, more to the uncaring universe than to anyone in particular.

Your interlocutor shrugs. “Maybe on someone else.”

Day 6 in the Middle School Time Loop: You keep your head down, but still surprise the teachers by somehow knowing the correct answers to every spontaneous question they throw out to the class. You study the outfits of your classmates more closely. You realize that it wasn’t the color, so much as the brand that made the difference. It proves the shoes were expensive. You note down Ashleigh's sneaker brand in smudgy ink on the back of your hand, and then after school you take half a year's saved-up allowance and buy a matching pair at the mall. Your mom raises her eyebrows but doesn’t stop you.

Day 7 in the Middle School Time Loop: Today you make it to lunch before anything major goes wrong. You think that the sneakers have protected you, and stare down at them lovingly, watching the Barbie-pink plastic stripes reflect the tube lights on the ceiling as you turn your feet this way and that. But then at lunch, Ashleigh comes up, arm and arm with a friend. Her eyes are a little pink, but only a little.

“Ashleigh wanted me to tell you that she’s really hurt that you copied her sneakers,” the friend informs you, nobly, as if it would be too unpleasant for Ashleigh to have to say this herself. Her mouth is solemn but her eyes are gleeful.

“I didn’t…” You start to deny it automatically, even though it’s true. And yet, something won’t let you apologize. Doesn’t she see your imitation for what it is: the most sincere compliment you know how to bestow? This is your Hail Mary.

As you meet her eyes, you realize she does know, but this only makes her despise you more.

“I think a lot of people have these sneakers,” you stammer, in the end, and they just sniff and turn away. You go back to eating your lunch alone.

Day 8 of the Middle School Time Loop: even though you do well in every class, you must be so much more stupid than your classmates, to be missing whatever detail it is that they seem to have caught. How do they do it so quickly? Before recess, before the end of homeroom, even, they all just know. You’ve had endless chances to do this day over and yet you never seem to be able to catch up with them. Running to stand still, you’ve heard your mother say, when she’s busy at work. That’s you. Running to stand still.

Day 9 of the Middle School Time Loop: you pretend to be sick again, and you realize that if you want to, you can pretend to be sick every day. It's easy to convince your parents: you look tired and unhappy, your eyes small within their dark circles, like some underground creature. You stop watching that TV Show that you never really wanted to watch in the first place, and instead dream your way through all your favourite childhood movies. Disney, Pixar, Studio Ghibli. You retreat into jewel-colored landscapes, where everyone is magical or beautiful or at least funny, and the heroes always win in the end.

Day 10 of the Middle School Time Loop: You notice that most of the Pixar heroes, the Disney princesses look more like Ashleigh than you. Long hair. Pale eyes. Button noses. And all of them, so thin.

Day 11 of the Middle School Time Loop: you go to school, but you don’t talk to anyone. You don’t even answer your name at roll call. Your teacher asks you if anything is wrong at school, or at home perhaps. You shake your head, but that evening you hear your father taking a call. You shrug off his worry: it’ll be forgotten tomorrow anyway.

Day 12 of the Middle School Time Loop: an unexpected development: your apathy almost seems to make your classmates like you more. When you say, truthfully, that you don’t care much for the TV Show that eternally dominates the recess chatter, some people look impressed. They ask you what you think is better. But you’re wise and don’t admit to liking anything. "Mysterious," someone says appreciatively.

At the end of recess, the girl who told you off for copying Ashleigh nudges you. “Hey. Look, Robert has an Up shirt. Kind of cute, that he’s still into that stuff, right?”

You know that it’s not the good cute.

You stare at her coldly. “The shirt just has a dog on it. It doesn't say he's from Up. So you must have liked the movie enough to remember him.”

She flushes scarlet, and hurries to catch up with Ashleigh, throwing you a dirty look. Robert glances at you gratefully but you don’t return his smile. He won’t remember that you did this for him. Anyway, you didn't, really. Do it for him, that is.

Day 13 of the Middle School Time Loop: You tell your parents you’re sick again. Today, you watch the second tier of Studio Ghibli movies, the ones that your parents always say, self-consciously, that you’ll find dull. Only Yesterday, Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There. You’re only a few minutes into Marnie when there’s a line that pulls you up short:

“In this world, there’s an invisible magic circle. There’s inside and outside. These people are inside. And I’m outside.”

The relief that washes over you is so profound that you almost cry, and then, when the movie's over, you do cry. Ugly sobs that make you sound like a toddler throwing a tantrum at the mall, that make your head pound with a dehydration headache. But behind the tears, there's relief. There it is, the truth that you were searching for, through all these do-overs. There’s an invisible magic circle. Of course there is.

But here’s the thing about circles: the inside is small. The outside is scary, and lonely, but it’s huge: huger than you could ever have imagined before you turned around and looked.

When your dad gets home, he asks if you’re feeling better. “Much,” you say, and it’s true.

Day ?? of the Middle School Time Loop: Sometimes you go to school, but ditch class and go to the library or the playground and do your own thing even if teachers yell at you. Sometimes you wander around the neighborhood. Sometimes you ask your parents crazy things, like to take you to work with them, or to the beach, or to DisneyWorld. Sometimes they say no. A surprising amount of times, they say yes. You wonder if maybe they’re trapped in a time loop too.

Sometimes you sit quietly in other classrooms than the one you’re meant to be in, until they shoo you out or even send you to the principal. (He finds you baffling. You feel a deep, slightly mournful affection for him, like you would for an very old and tired dog). It’s surprising, the amount of different things that are getting taught in one school in one day. It takes you a long time to work your way through them all.

You watch a frog getting dissected a few times before you start to feel bad and don’t go back to that classroom again. Your favorite class to crash is art, because the teacher always clocks that you’re not meant to be there but smiles and lets you stay anyway. When you meet her eyes, it feels like you’re sharing a secret.

Day One-Hundred And Something of the Middle School ...Wait.

At some point, time started moving again, and you didn’t even realize it.

For so long, the reprimands you received about your future seemed so empty, so laughable. There was no future. Only a more- or less-bearable present. But now, your classmates remember the unhinged things that you do; now, your teachers’ and parents’ worries about the future have the full juggernaut weight of reality behind them.

You thought that you’d be more terrified. For so long, you’ve dreaded this forward momentum. No loading screen, no mini-games, just one single, awful, pulsating life. But things are different now. Time’s moving again, and here you are, so far outside the invisible magic circle that you’re not even sure that you'd be able to see it any more. You can still feel its power, but faintly, like the pull between two magnets when they're an arm's length apart. Easy to ignore.

“Are you ready?” Robert says, catching your eye over the kitchen table. He comes here first thing so you can get the bus together. At some point, during the time loop, you started to seek him out. He was outside the circle, too, you realized. But even more importantly, not once, on any of those grimly looping days, did you see him try and push someone else out to make a space for himself. In this crab bucket, that’s something that counts for a lot.

“Our final day of middle school,” he sighs, half to himself. “Never thought I’d see it.”

"Me either," you reply, getting up to put on your talismanic pink sneakers. They’re scuffed and dirty after years of wear, and certainly Ashley would never be caught dead in them these days. Maybe that’s what you should have told her, all those loops ago: that no imitation, let alone one as unskilled as yours, can ever be perfect, and that indeed the very imperfection renders it an original work in its own right. Time and thought and human care transforms even the most diligent copy into something else entirely.

But you’ve been through enough time loops to know that that sort of explanation wouldn’t go over very well.

[sexyrasputin]

& Then a weird guy appear

[sexyrasputin]

what struck me the most about the mv is that she takes the “forget him” pill and instantly goes to him (matty) cause he’s right there, meaning that he was there to make her forget joe. and then we see her getting treatment for forgetting joe, but he comes along and unplugs the machine and i think that is a clear metaphor for “you were not able to make me forget, rather you made it impossible for me to do that because you did the same shit with me; gave me hope and made me happy in my lowest moment just to leave me stranded”

[sexyrasputin]

It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album. ✌️ I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours. 🤍 https://taylor.lnk.to/ttpd-theanthology

[sexyrasputin]

TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT IS CRAZY OMG??

that being said, here's a friendly reminder not to harass joe alwyn over it. you don't know taylor, you're not her personal guard dog, it's parasocial to be honest.

not to mention, this is only her side of the story, and it might not be 100% about joe.

don't be a parasocial weirdo and threaten joe alwyn on twitter 🫶 touch grass and listen to taylor's music instead 🙌

ok goodnight 👍

[sexyrasputin]

honestly but daddy i love him makes me think of like a much more grown up retrospective look on love story and i love that so much

[sexyrasputin]

Ok I’m dead don’t talk to me 😭😭😭😭

[sexyrasputin]

first 5 faceless emojis are how your summers gonna go

[sexyrasputin]

"What are you going to do? Fire me? We both know you're not going to do that. You need me."

"You're not nearly as irreplaceable as you think you are."

[sexyrasputin]

random thoughts after listening to self-titled all the way through in prep fpr ttpd:

1. Tim McGraw - the emotional punch of that’s a lie to close out the song. ugh the storytelling in her first track on her first album. ridiculous talent

2. Picture to Burn - watch me strike a match on all my wasted time is a lovely little line. the visual imagery and clever twist on an ordinary phrase that taylor is so famous for is already visible through the first two songs. as are the useless boys

3. Teardrops on my Guitar - he’s the time taken up but there’s never enough

4. A Place in the World - baby YOYOK! so as the no. 1 YOYOK stan, how can i not like her? i’m alone…i’ll be strong, i’ll be wrong…and i’m wearing my heart on my sleeve. oh taylor

5. Cold as You - just a great track. so i start a fight ‘cause i need to feel something and you do what you want ‘cause i’m not what you wanted. the sharpness of this observation and her knowledge of self! and ofc mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you

6. The Outside - god what a taylor song. starts with i went looking for a reason. themes of lonliness and not belonging. theme of being a perfectionist nothing seems to work the first few times….so how can i try to be better? theme of i would give it all up to be a part of this, a part of you (you now believe different though, i think. own it, darling one). so many ideas that you can trace through her whole discography

7. Tied Together with a Smile - giving away love like it’s extra change. hoping it will end up in his pocket but he leaves you out like a penny in the rain cause it’s not his price to pay. stop it taylor. you are just too damned good at this. and then you have the main character being likened to a package tied together with a smile but it’s coming undone

8. Stay Beautiful - she is so loving and sweet in this. a little ditty

9. Should’ve Said No - the OG betty! we have all the characters and the begging but she doesn’t end up with james! baby taylor was so much smarter. self-titled has so many fun angry sing-a-longs

10. Mary’s song - just classic taylor-storytelling. so many vignettes in less than 3 minutes! my favourite? take me back to the creek beds we turned up. 2a.m., riding in your truck. simple but there is such a feeling of freedom and summer in it

11. Our Song - banger! the video! it ends with i grabbed a pen and an old napkin and i wrote down our song. SAY IT, TAYLOR

12. I’m Only Me When I’m With You - the theme of i’m only up when you are not down. don’t wanna fly if you’re still on the ground and how it connects to ttpd. also sometimes we don’t say a thing, the other half [of the time] i’m only trying to let you know that what i feel is true, i’m only me when i’m with you, through it all nobody gets me like you do. even you know everything about me and maybe you say that you can’t live without me are all themes that connect to ttpd

13. Invisible- baby YBWM! baby taylor pleading let me love you, let me want you

14. A Perfectly Good Heart - why would you wanna make the very first scar?

the way she changes her delivery and tonality through the album to serve emotion and storytelling is so classically taylor

[sexyrasputin]

"Stop asking if things can get worse. I'm tired of being jinxed."

"It's not a jinx. The universe just hates me personally."

[sexyrasputin]

she has that sadness in her eyes that you only see in alcoholic captains of doomed arctic expeditions

[sexyrasputin]

The Four Sacred Artistic Motives:

-what if this bad thing was good instead

-how about Make-Believe Land can have whatever I want

-would that be fucked up or what

-I think that shit's hot

[sexyrasputin]

Using dissociate instead of zoning out. Describing a hobby as a hyperfixation. Saying nonverbal when you want a bit of quiet. Saying intrusive thoughts because that must mean an urge like to buy coffee or hair dye. Do you know feeling off sometimes is a sign of autism? Lying is gaslighting. Everyone I dislike is a narcissist.

[sexyrasputin]

i made a character sheet. free to use as you wish, feel free to change whatever you want XD open source ass thing. spent all of ~maybe an hour on it.

Credit: the text in the insert-image box comes from this video, and the text for the top three lines (intense, complex, fruity) comes from this post. The actual image was made with the free NBOS character sheet creator, which is a sort of dated but free and solid text-layout sheet maker intended for ttrpg style character sheet creation.

[sexyrasputin]

i don’t grow out of my interests they simply become absorbed into me as i get older like tree rings

[sexyrasputin]

Thinking again about the time my aliens class was discussing conspiracy theories and the professor asked us to call some out and I, thinking simultaneously of both flat earthers and the "moon landing was faked" people, confidently shouted out "FLAT MOON!" and sent the class into hysterics