#AM I MAKING SENSE HERE?!

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

TAWERET

I WANT TO TALK ABOUT TAWERET! 

I’ve been putting this off for a while and I need to discuss Taweret! Let’s go! 

So who is Taweret. (Disclaimer: I am not an expert on Egyptology or mythology in relation, I’ve only done a little research). 

Taweret is a goddess that gained increasing power and placement throughout Ancient history. 

She is described as having the head of a Hippopotamus, arms/paws of a lion, and tail and legs of a crocodile. 

That is one strong and fierce combination. They looked around Egypt and went, “What is the scariest things we have out here?” 

So what is her place? Fertility and Rejuvenation (Goddess of pure water from the nile). Okay, They loved that shit back then. Makes sense. 

Oh, and Protector of Women and Children. 

It was common to find pictures of her around the homes of new born babies and young children. She was painted on their cups and plates, had little statues placed near their cribs. 

She was fierce and terrifying. She was meant to protect the children from illness and ill intent. She was motherly and protective. She kept harm from them and the family. It was believed that if you raised a hand to your child or wife, you would face Taweret. 

So what DOES happen in the afterlife? Where does Taweret fall into play? 

When you died, you came before a series of judges who would ask you questions. (Book of the Dead was an instruction manual filled with how you were supposed to answer these questions, as well as spells to help keep you true). 

Once you answered the questions your heart was weighed against the feather of Ma’at. If your scales did not balance, you were fed to Ammit. If your scales are balanced, you would be welcomed to the afterlife by Osiris. 

In the afterlife, you were given a plot of land to do with as you wished and expected to maintain it. It was filled with abundance and everything you could need to be happy and good of heart (including worship of the gods). It was supposed to reflect the world that they had left behind (hence taking all your things with you in death that brought you joy in life). 

So what place did Taweret have in the afterlife? 

Taweret held the role of funerary deity. She was in charge of rebirth and passing into the afterlife. She became the center of homes in the New Kingdom, becoming related to life-giving regeneration, rebirth, and purifying. 

At times, she was seen as the opposite of Ammit, who was the devourer of the impure soul and path to darkness. Taweret was nourishment and aid to those in need. 

SO WHY WAS SHE ON THE BOAT?! 

So in the Moon Knight show, the ways of the old world have fallen into the past and current gods/goddesses just kinda watch and don’t do anything. MANY of the old gods/goddesses are imprisoned for not following the rules one way or another. Others are banished (Khonshu). 

It’s easy to believe that with important gods being banished/imprisoned, their duties had to be filled by others. It’s easy to think that the one that was supposed to be on the boat got themselves imprisoned and the next closest thing was tossed into the job with a little guide book. 

She has a guide book with a speech and rules. She doesn’t really seem to be familiar with her role or how to carry it out. Or perhaps, she isn’t familiar with D.I.D situations. A soul arrives and she expects one and is met with two. Do the rules still apply? Does she still do the same thing? Will she blow them up when she tries to remove their hearts or are they going to be fine? 

Marc does not understand Egyptian Mythology. At all. This boy be skating by with “Egypt for dummies” folded up in his back pocket with the first page highlighted and then he figured he’d get around to reading the rest later.  

As Avatar to Khonshu, he’s tossed into an afterlife not meant for him and an afterlife he does not understand. 

What is more, Marc is so estranged from his own culture and religion that he is in spiritual distress. He knows what is supposed to happen. What he was told and taught to happen. 

And here he is faced with a situation he doesn’t understand in the slightest. This further highlights how lost Marc is. He is so hurt and broken up inside that he believes that he isn’t even worthy of his own Jewishness. 

He killed people. He did terrible things. He was beaten and blamed for the death of his brother. He was taught to hate his life and himself. He tried to take his own life most likely more than once. He wasn’t even worthy of death as Khonshu kept bringing him back. 

This brings us to Steven. Emotional protector and Spiritual protector. Steven not only understands what death means in relation to his Judaism, but he knows Egyptology. He KNOWS the gods and goddesses. He knows the book of the dead forward and backwards. He’s probably read it in three different languages. 

So when Taweret shows up, how does Steven explain who she is to Marc? 

“This is Taweret, goddess of women and children!” 

That’s an interesting breakdown for all that Taweret does. Especially with all that Steven knows she does. And she is kind and gentle with them. She gives them chances, tries to welcome them, even fights for them. She even reaches out to Layla on their behalf. 

One has to wonder if she learned their story and, though she did not understand it, she felt for them. A child that needed help and protection and did not receive it. 

Is it possible that out of all the gods, one that was most fitting for them was sent to be their guide on the boat? 

Is it possible that Steven, the protector, was the one that somehow chose the one to greet and ultimately judge them? 

If Ammit was a representation of their mother, then is it not fitting that Taweret, the one of purity and rebirth and protection, would be the one to meet them? 

Now as others have pointed out, this is not where they are supposed to be. There is no representation of ‘heaven’ meant for them and the notion of Steven being left behind healing Marc is a pretty bad one. 

With Jeremy Slater writing, it was a rough go of what happened. However, I choose to see where Diab, who is NOT Christian (as far as I am aware please correct me if I am mistaken) took us visually. He isn’t Jewish either, but he is Egyptian and telling an Egyptian story. 

At this point, they are dead and they are trapped in an afterlife that isn’t theirs and doesn’t make sense to them culturally. Marc my sweet idiot man takes ‘Field of reeds’ literally. 

Much like Vallhalla’s field of wheat, it is a large quiet peaceful afterlife filled with joy, celebration, and life. Even on the ancestral plane with Black Panther, it is a beautiful place but there is MORE there. So much more. 

Marc just finds himself in an empty field. Just a big ‘ol field full of nothing. Because he does not understand where he is! 

“Okay, I’m supposed to go somewhere peaceful in a field.” And it’s beautiful, and it is peaceful, but it’s very literal. 

And Taweret is just like, alright. I saw your life and it was full of rage and violence and hate and pain. This must be what you want I guess? Isn’t it nice? It’s pretty quiet and alone here. You must have wanted to be alone because of the whole D.I.D thing I guess? 

She doesn’t really understand what’s going on either. This isn’t really it, but this is the first time she’s really come across this situation. 

Taweret: Your heart is full. Your journey is over.

Marc: It's so... quiet.

Taweret: The peace you've always wanted but never had. You're manifesting it. No danger. No loneliness or hurt.

Marc: What about Steven?

Taweret: He's gone, Marc. The Duat has him. Please enjoy your peace.

Marc: We need to go back for him.

Taweret: It doesn't work like that. Leave here, and you can't return. Anyway, you don't need him anymore, Marc.

Marc: So I get to go on to eternal peace, and he just... stays lost in the sand forever? No, I'm not good with that.

It isn’t full. We can see it. He’s clutching it and it looks empty. And Marc knows this is not it. There is no Hell in his belief. He just sees Steven as being trapped somewhere he isn’t supposed to be. It’s Marc’s nature to help people. And Steven helped him. Steven protected him. 

So yeah, it’s been covered before. He leaves. There are whole metas out there (Love you @fdelopera ) about this part and I recommend you go look up the Jewish perspective because it’s beautiful. 

But I want to focus again on Taweret. 

Marc goes back, the heart glows pure and true and full with Steven there to help fill it, and Osiris opens the gate back. 

But she isn’t done. 

One of the rituals of funerary rites is to replace the heart with a golden scarab with a spell written across it that helps to guide the soul while they are being judged. It helps keep them true and pure. Keeps them a good person. 

Taweret sends a Scarab to save them and fight along them. A protector of women and children to shield them. 

So why was Taweret on the boat? Do you think Steven had anything to do with it? Do you think Marc subconsciously knew what he needed as a child? Someone to save them? Do you think she just so happened to have gotten the job as a toss up and then saw two small boys in need of help? 

She could have just judged them right then and there and tossed them off. She didn’t have to give them time. 

Do you think she knew the whole time that Marc needed to make that choice to go back? That he would always have made that choice? That it was Steven that needed to know that Marc would come back for him? That Steven needed to find his own purpose as the protector? 

[inkskinned]

at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"

like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.

"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."

... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.

and i'd still keep writing.

i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.

i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley

"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"

and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.

it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.

you create because you're greedy.

[saessenach]

What is honor compared to a woman’s love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms… or the memory of a brother’s smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.

Jon Snow - and family that haunts him, because sometimes ghosts make for the best love stories.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

My Lawyer is going to Get Your Ass.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[coldbycrossfade]

MAN THAT REALLY COLORS THIS RESPONSE IN THIS CONVERSATION SO DIFFERENTLY FOR ME

[expelliarmus]

I don't believe in destiny, but if destiny exists, then it is heading for Donna Noble.

[luxaofhesperides]

Can I please have meet cute/weird with mistaken villain! Danny (but really just a engineer and or chem student) and the one being put on investigation cause Danny is a day villain(not really)! Duke

Technically, Danny Fenton is innocent. Technically. 

Duke wants to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since he’s having so much trouble finding solid evidence that Danny is stealing from a wide variety of people, but he’s been burned before by trying to see people as better than they were. It doesn’t change the fact that Oracle’s cameras keep spotting Danny right before a building on the street is broken into and something stolen. He’s always just walking down the sidewalk; no one has spotted him entering or exiting a building, but he’s around far too often to be unconnected to these burglaries. 

It doesn’t help that strange, petty crimes have been on the rise since Danny first arrived in Gotham. 

So.

Danny Fenton is technically innocent.

Duke is trying to prove that he’s not. 

Maybe I’m looking too closely, he thinks, going over Danny’s sparse file in the Hatch. Maybe Danny’s only one person in a bigger operation.

He could just be the lookout, the runner, the information gatherer who marks which buildings to hit. He may even be the scapegoat, the sacrificial lamb; Danny has no support in Gotham, no family, no job. There would be no one to help him if he got arrested or injured in a fight. He’s a freshman college student from Illinois who should be unprepared for life in Gotham but is somehow managing to survive like a native. 

There’s a lot about Danny that doesn’t add up. 

Duke has seen plenty of different people since he first went out as the Signal. He’s tried to be kind and give people the benefit of the doubt, but it leads to his loved ones being put in danger. Some people are truly evil, some working on a malicious agenda, some are misguided in their beliefs, and some are desperate people who see no other way to move forward.

He’s not sure yet which on Danny is, but he’s hoping Danny is just desperate and needs a little help to get out of a life of crime.

Which leads to the next problem: Duke has no idea what Danny is steal, or why. He hits both rich and poor folks, civilians and members of the mob, and once, notably, stole something right out of Cobblepot’s office. Allegedly, at least, since no one saw him enter or exit the office, not even the security cameras. 

But added to the whispers going around about a new group in Gotham snatching people up from the streets, and some strange green substances found in warehouses often raided by police for the frequent drug labs that pop up in them… 

It doesn’t look good for Danny. Especially when a few of the items he stole were found where people either vanished or where that green substance has been found.

A week of analysis in the Batcave and they still don’t know what it is. 

Both Damian and Jason suspected Lazarus water, but the composition was completely different. By the look of the molecular structure, it shouldn’t have been in a liquid form at all. 

All these findings lead back to one person who may have answers: Danny Fenton.

According to Tim, who’s already broken into Danny’s dorm room and checked over all the labs he has classes in, Danny has some concerning items in his possession. Various inventions and little metal knick-knacks put together by a practiced hand. He was also the one to find all the information that went into Danny’s file when it was first being made: social media posts, school report cards, news articles about his parents… everything. 

And then he had an emergency mission to take with the Titans that swept him out of Gotham leaving Duke to tackle this investigation on his own. 

He doesn’t have Tim’s natural skill in stalking and invading privacy. He hates breaking into people’s spaces and following them around, but needs must and he has to force himself to work through the discomfort. 

It’s a good thing he did, too. Danny’s leaving his dorm after his last afternoon class, hood up to hide his face and something held in the front pocket of his hoodie. He ducks around people on the sidewalk easily, almost as if he’s gliding through the crowd instead of walking. 

Duke follows from above, bending the light around him to hide him from sight. 

He walks for some time, weaving through alleys and streets as if he’s been in Gotham his whole life, leaving behind the university campus to head towards Otisberg. There’s something strange about the way Danny walks, as if he’s moving around people who aren’t there, guided by something Duke can’t hear. Even using his meta abilities doesn’t do much beyond show him where Danny’s going to be in the next few seconds. 

He continues to follow Danny on the rooftops, walking along the edge to keep him in sight. 

Then Danny stops behind an apartment building and tilts his head back to look up at it. He tilts his head to the side, then nods and looks around the empty alley. Duke crouches down, keeping his eyes on Danny in the hopes of catching him in the act—

Danny disappears.

Duke curses under his breath and jumps down from the roof, putting more strength into his abilities as soon as his feet touch the ground. 

The space where Danny was has a faint outline, oddly enough. He’s never seen that before. From it is a semi-transparent trail, smoke-like and a pale green leading into the building. It goes straight into a wall, as if Danny walked through it.

He can’t go in and search the entire apartment, but he can grapple up and take a look into the hallways to see where Danny’s heading. If he was looking up, then that’s where he should be heading. 

It doesn’t take any effort to scale the building. There are ledges and windowsills and plenty of handholds for him to propel himself off of, and paired with his powers, Duke is able to find the correct floor in just under two minutes. 

The green smoke slowly dances through the air of the ninth floor, on the east side of the building. If he’s been counting the rooms correctly, then the target of tonight’s burglary has to be apartment 924. 

The curtains are drawn on the window he makes his way over to, and his abilities don’t show him anything helpful for the immediate future. He hates going in blind, especially to a civilian’s home, but capturing Danny takes priority. Duke picks the lock and slides the window up slowly, making sure it stays quiet, then slips into an empty bedroom. 

He makes his way out into the hallway on silent feet, keeping a wary eye on the thin smoke strands of green, curling along the walls. The rest of the apartment is empty as well, pale sunlight slanting across the floor through the blinds. 

Everything is still and silent. Danny’s nowhere to be found. 

Did he miss Danny leaving, somehow? Was this a misdirect to get him out of the way while Danny stole from another location? Did he know Duke was following him?

But no, his ears pick up on the faint sound of clothes rustling. 

Cautiously, Duke turns towards the front door, where the door to the coat closet is open. He focuses on what’s going to happen in the next twenty seconds and sees Danny panic, then disappear from sight again, but a transparent outline of his body is visible just enough to show him where he runs to. Best not to spook him; Duke pulls at the light around him and bends it to hide him from sight.

Then he moves along the wall, getting around the open door without bumping into anyone or anything. 

A figure in front of the coats, shoving them to the side roughly, flickers in and out of view, almost like a reflection in water, distorted by ripples on the surface. 

Danny pops back into visibility suddenly, scowling at the coats. “Are you sure it’s in here?” he asks the empty air. 

There is no answer, but Danny acts like there is. He rolls his eyes and says, “It’s a favor. That I’m doing for you. I can literally stop right now and you wouldn’t be able to stop me.” He shoves aside another heavy winter coat, then sighs. “Why don’t you look for it, and then tell me where it is.”

He steps back and bumps into Duke.

Danny whirls around, eyes wide, and blast of green light has Duke crashing back into the wall, trying to blink spots out of his eyes. 

“Wait!” he yells, grabbing for Danny before he can run off. “I just wanna talk!”

“Standing right behind me like a serial killer does not make you look like someone who wants to talk!” Danny yells back, slipping through his hands like mist. 

“I just have a few questions!”

“Well, I have a question: why?!”

“Will you hold still, we’re being too loud!”

Danny escapes to the other side of the apartment, next to a window looking fully prepared to fling himself out of it. But he does stop yelling, so Duke is counting it as a success.

“Why is the Signal coming after me?” Danny asks, glaring at him suspiciously.

“Dude,” Duke says, “You’ve been seen outside of every single building that’s had a burglary since you first arrived in Gotham. All the Bats are after you, they just sent me because I’m the only one active during the day.”

“All the Bats?” Danny repeats, losing what little color he had in his face.

He looks legitimately scared, pale enough to be concerning, and Duke drops his guard and tries to relax the tension in the apartment. “I’m not gonna turn you into the cops or anything. I just had questions and you seem like the most likely person to have answers. That’s it.”

Danny still looks wary, ready to run at a moment’s notice, but he doesn’t leave when Duke approached casually, leaning his weight against the couch. 

“So,” he begins, “What’s the deal with all the thievery? It’s rarely something super rare or expensive.”

There’s a long few minutes where Danny doesn’t answer, looking anywhere but at Duke. Then he twitches a bit and glares off to the side, and says, “I taking items that are contaminated with ectoplasm to help ghosts move through the veil and leave Gotham.”

That tells him nothing! That just gives Duke more questions! But at least it’s an answer, the first one any of them have got.

“I think you’re gonna have to explain a little more.”

“Ghosts are real, alright?”

“Yes.”

Danny stops. Squints at him. “What do you mean, ‘yes’?”

“Ghosts are real,” Duke repeats, “There are a few who help heroes or are heroes themselves, but that’s more on the magic side of things so I’m not super familiar with it.”

“Magic,” Danny says slowly. “Sure, alright. Um. Yes, ghosts are real. And there are a ton in Gotham who need help moving on, but they’re too weak to get past the veil. Something about Gotham has made the veil super strong, so they need a little boost to get through. Additional ectoplasm bonded helps with that.”

“And that’s why you’re stealing random things?”

“The ghosts I help can kind of sense ectoplasm-infused things, but they need me to grab them since they can’t hold anything without a physical body.”

Duke nods slowly. “Okay, that’s starting to answer some things. We have found those objects in the last places missing people were seen. Any idea what’s going on with that?”

“Yeah, those people were already dead.”

The way Danny says the most concerning answers as if they’re nothing is really throwing Duke off his game. He was expecting to be calm and serious to keep Danny from freaking out too much and look like a legitimate hero. But as soon as Danny started talking, all his nerves fell away and Duke is left grasping for composure. 

“They were…”

“They were ghosts, yeah. And they needed to get through the veil. But they were also able to possess their own bodies and didn’t realize they were dead until I had to break the news to them, which is why it looks like living people just up and disappeared.”

“Okay… What about the green stuff we’ve been finding?”

“Ectoplasm.” Danny holds up a hand and a neon green light surrounds it. Except it looks more solid than light, as if it can be touched, and it moves on its own like fire around Danny’s fingers. “It’s what ghosts are made of.”

Oh. If Danny has ectoplasm, does that mean…

“Are you dead?” Duke asks, heart dropping. 

Instead of looking upset about the question, or even disturbed by it, Danny just shrugs and waves his hand back and forth. “A little.”

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Duke says, trying to resist the urge to rub his temples. It’s a habit he didn’t mean to pick up from Batman, and it would just look silly with his helmet in the way. “You’re just doing all this to help ghosts?”

“Yeah. Basically. They asked for help man, of course I was going to help them.”

Danny’s a good person. He’s just a good person to ghosts. But this is good news either way, and he can let the others know that Danny isn’t the next Catwoman and is entirely unconnected from any drug production. Everything that made him look like a criminal is just the fault of ghosts. 

“Speaking of,” Danny continues, “Looks like they found what they need, so I’m going to grab that real quick.” He pushes off of the wall and heads for the closet again, moving past Duke without any fear. Duke follows, keeping a few feet of distance between them so Danny doesn’t feel trapped, and watches as he shoves aside the coats again and pulls a shoebox out of the depths of the closet. From it, he takes a single intricate lace headband and holds it up.

It looks normal, if a little old, but when Danny sends ectoplasm through it, the lace lights up and holds the glow. 

He pulls some strange contraption out of his pocket and holds it up to the headband. It makes a few beeps, then Danny mutters, “7.4 millisieverts. That’s enough to get you through the veil.”

Another concern Duke can let go of: Danny’s not creating weapons like his parents have, he’s just measuring ectoplasm through his own inventions. 

Maybe he could talk to Bruce or Tim about getting Danny an internship at the R&D lab in Wayne Enterprises? That way they could keep a closer eye on him while seeing what he can create in some of the best laboratories in the country.

Well, it might take having them meet Danny before they trust him enough for that, but Duke is sure he can make it happen. 

“I better go see this through, then,” Danny says, shoving the contraption back into his hoodie pocket. He gives Duke a small awkward wave, then pops out of visibility. “I’ll see you around, I guess?” he disembodied voice hedges, and Duke smiles.

“I’m sure I’ll be able to find you again.”

“Cool. I gonna go now!” 

He doesn’t see any sign that Danny’s left, but he gets a feeling that he’s alone now, the apartment suddenly emptier than it was before. 

As strange and concerning as Danny and all his bizarre actions were, Duke is glad he was able to finally talk to him and get some answers. Knowing how Gotham pulls people him in, it’s only a matter of time before the other Bats are exposed to Danny’s kind of strange. He’s already looking forward to it. 

For now, though, he has a file to update in the Hatch; POTENTIAL THREAT will be removed and replaced with GHOST HELPER. 

If anyone goes snooping into his files and gets confused, then that’s their problem. Duke’s explained enough. And Danny can take care of the rest, once they go through the effort of tracking him down. Duke's done his part, he's ready for the rest of them to step up to his level.

He can’t wait to see what other kind of trouble Danny can get it into.

[superhell]

house md is wild because house tells wilson that he’ll sacrifice many things but never himself and then he sacrifices himself for wilson. and then he sacrifices himself for wilson. and then he sacrifices himself for wilson. and then he

[still-snowing]

wangxian in love for qixi 🤍

[chaotic-minds-think-alike]

It’s all about perspective

Bonus without the imagery below

[likegoldintheair]

there's something about the way buck opens the door to let tommy in and then immediately goes into the kitchen under the guise of getting a beer when what he actually does (consciously or not) is using the kitchen island as a barrier between him and tommy. because he doesn't know why tommy is there but he has, as far as he knows, already been rejected by him several times so he wants to protect himself from that happening again. but then tommy tells him that there's no way he can ever replace buck's place in eddie's or christopher's lives and what does buck do? he almost immediately relaxes and moves away from behind the kitchen island and into the same space as tommy, open and curious, inching closer and closer with every word they exchange because this clearly isn't a rejection and tommy is giving buck his full attention and buck can't help himself from giving into that gravitational pull nor does he want to

[dizzybizz]

please consider jellyfish john,, for me 🥺?

[ratcandy]

putting my entomology lessons to good use

[fuckyeah-bears]

y’all never fucking appreciate polar bear sunday and it always pisses me the actual fuck off

[edsbacktattoo]

i wanna talk about the ‘treasure room’ because i think it does a really good job of summarising what’s happening between ed and stede at the moment.

stede ‘takes the initiative’ (or acts without discussing what he’s doing) and puts all of ed’s remaining treasure in one room that’s completely hidden. his reasons for putting it away are:

it was all over the place

he was tripping over it

some of it is quite ugly :/

and instantly ed hits him with the “excellent. a reminder of all my guilt. a guilt room. 😔🤘”

they’re not being subtle about it. this is a physical representation of their guilt and they’re demonstrating here exactly how they’re taking care of it.

ed is living with it. it’s in his space. sure it might be in the way but where else could he possibly put it? there’s so much of it and it’s his. there’s no use in just palming it off to someone else. no one wants this much treasure.

but stede can’t stand it and he has to deal with it now or he’ll die. so he just crams it into some hidden space and considers the matter resolved. it’s out of the way. it can’t hurt them if they don’t think about it. and it’s ugly! no one wants to look at something ugly, especially when they’re trying to rebuild their space.

but that’s just the thing. neither of them are actually dealing with or addressing the problem. stede has just. put it away.

WITHOUT ASKING ED WHAT HE THINKS THEY SHOULD DO WITH IT.

so they decide to just use it to throw this big party because surely that will fix it, right? that will get rid of the Treasure Issue.

WRONG!!

because they still didn’t talk about any of it. yeah they talked about “turning poison into positivity” and “giving some of it to the less fortunate” but they didn’t deal with the root of the problem. how did ed amass that much treasure in the first place? what’s the ideal way of getting rid of it? is there anything they want to keep?

they’re on such uneven planes this season because they can’t communicate to reach a common ground. ed is surrounded by his guilt and wants to leave it all behind. stede has just hidden the guilt and wants to pretend it isn’t even there.

[actual-changeling]

everything crowley and aziraphale do for each other is just a silent i love you shouted as loudly as possible

here, i'll protect you with my wing, i love you. i will do you this favour, i love you. i will do this for you because i know you, because you will love it, because i love making you happy, i love you.

i will help you home while drunk and hold you as closely as possible because this one time i can, because i love you.

let's go for lunch, i love you. let's dine at the ritz, i love you. let's drink in your home, together, i love you, i love you, too.

to the world, to my world, to you.

i will risk your life because you asked me to. i love you. please don't leave me.

i'm glad to have given up the stars if it means getting to love you, here, like this.

i love you, i love you, i love you, over and over again, and they can both hear it, they both know it's there, and yet they cannot allow themselves to believe it.

i love you, and they both still aren't saying it, instead they're looking at each other thinking i love you, but you cannot love me, i cannot be loved, not by someone like you, and now you're leaving.

you're leaving, i love you. you're staying behind, i love you.

let's meet again, please.

i love you, too.