#I haven't had coffee yet

[thatcrazycrowgirl]

Personal AC CanonxOC Ship Aesthetics 

Jacob & Magnolia | Uncharted AU

“Anyone ever tell you have a funny idea of romantic?”

[ravendruid]

"I'm beneath nobody."

Asmodaddy is a top confirmed.

[lifeofkaze]

Happy FFWF!!! ✨

I heard that someone planned out a story this morning… what inspired this one, and how does it relate thematically to your other stories?

Happy FFWF 💛💛💛 You just always know what I want to ramble about, don't you?

So, the thing that has finally clawed its way from the bottom of my Story Vault into the light is a concept I've had for way over a year now. It's another short AU - shocking - and this time it's set in the world of The Witcher. As always when it gets dark and gritty, Ava put her foot down and demanded she get it, so here we are now.

Atm, the AU has the working title "The Lesser of Two Evils" and looks to be around 8 chapters long. As to how it relates to Ava's themes, it is a story about morality and the thousand shades of grey it comes in, and how there is no pure good and no pure evil. The Witcher universe in general has a very strong theme of people serving their own interests first and foremost, and how that can be the death of idealism, and whether or not following a higher ideal is foolish or noble.

The initial inspiration for the Witcher AU comes from my annual obsession I have with this world/lore as soon as autumn hits. I always loved stories where folklore is brought to life, which is the foundation Sapkowski based the Witcher stories on. Especially Slavic/Eastern European folktales hold my heart in that regard, but why that is I have no idea.

So, it was either plunging back into gaming (ain't nobody got time for that) or finally caving and starting the AU. When @whatwouldvalerydo sent me a Trick ask with the prompt Full Moon and I found an abandoned idea in my story vault with that title that could be converted to fit this AU, my downward spiral began...

[eisbecherovka]

in a 2024 taste test by austrian newspaper der standard comparing sachertorte and variants thereof, the original sacher torte from hotel sacher was deemed "too dry" and disappointing. the winner of the blind taste test was a store-brand frozen sachertorte from the supermarket chain spar, which has the advantage of costing one-tenth the price of das original.

[baejax-the-great]

Absolutely reeling.

So I knew that the origin of "Hector was a great man, moral, noble, better than all of the Greeks" began as Roman propaganda that somehow has made it to now, the year 2023, and is still taught to high school students.

What I did not know was why scholars shit on Achilles as vehemently as they did (and still do).

My copy of Fagles' translation of the Iliad has a preface by a different scholar who I'm not going to bother to name because he's an idiot (and idk probably dead at this point). I read the entire thing, absolutely baffled, because he would cite a part of the text (that I admittedly had not read yet! at all!), quote it, and then come to the most batshit interpretation based on that quote I had ever seen in my life. His general take was that Achilles was a sociopath who had no feelings for anyone other than himself and his own pride, and every action he took (until welcoming Priam into his hut) was done in service of that pride. To support this, he decided that Achilles did not see Patroclus as a person, but rather as an extension of himself, and thus someone injuring Patroclus was them injuring Achilles, and so he did not care about Patroclus, he only cared about his wounded pride.

Yeah.

That sounded wrong before reading the book, and while reading the book all i could think was, "Did we read the same fucking thing???" Put in context, those quotations still did not support his conclusions whatsoever.

But i cracked open Caroline Alexander's "The War That Killed Achilles" last night, and she solves this mystery of "Hector good, Achilles bad" for me right out the gate (which is good because so far I've only read the preface).

Western Europeans by and large learned about the Trojan war from Roman stories, which became fairly popular, and not the Iliad, which was not translated into French or English until centuries later. As mentioned, these were propaganda that cast the Trojans in a much better light than the Greeks because the Romans believed they were descended from Trojan refugees. This starts a trend that is still going on in scholarly circles as casting the Iliad as a war between "barbaric Greeks living in a shitty, lawless camp" vs "civilized, educated, weaving, real-wife-having Trojans," making the Iliad a tragedy in which Homer for some reason skewers his own people and their warlike culture as barbaric while propping up a dead, foreign city-state. This interpretation is still extant and was the postscript to another copy of the Iliad I have.

According to Alexander, scholars closer to Homer's time saw the entire war as a tragedy--both the destruction of Troy AND the destruction of the Greek army. While this is not covered in the Iliad, very few Greeks actually made it home after Troy. Some that did were then outcast (Teucer for example), some were murdered (bye, Agamemnon), some went on to create new kingdoms in other places (Diomedes), but by and large, there was no going home from that war. There was no great victory with all their loot. The entire thing was a disaster for both sides, spurred on by fickle gods.

Back to the more recent European interpretations of this story, one reason Hector ended up cast in such a "good" light, despite being a dumbass who wants to dishonor dead people just as badly as Achilles ever did, was in order to make Achilles look worse. Why was it important that Achilles becomes a villain in this story in which he is very much not a villain? Because Europeans were involved in so much war with each other and the rest of the world that a young, insubordinate man who criticizes his idiot of a commander, decides his life isn't worth throwing away for this war, and refuses to fight to sack a city was an affront to their values. Young men were to be obedient, follow their commanding officers, and colonize the world for queen and country. Achilles suggesting losing his life is not worth it to prop up Agamemnon's war is a dangerous precedent for all the good little soldiers needed to make their nations wealthy.

It's almost funny that these analyses propping up Troy as a beacon of civilization were made by people living in countries so bent on colonizing the world. They identified with the city being sacked and not the greedy sackers of said city, who they were much closer to. And Achilles, educated, morally rigid, emotional Achilles, is recast as a sociopathic asshole who doesn't care about anyone other than himself, unlike all of those other beacons of selflessness among the Greek leadership.

The tragedy of the Iliad is that Achilles is right, the war is pointless, Agamemnon did dishonor the shit out of him, and it doesn't matter because he's going to die in it anyway.

Frankly, given how badly his character has been interpreted for so long, I think the muses owe him an apology.

[a-very-tired-jew]

Ironic Jokes as a Path to Radicalization

There was a post on here a few days ago, that for the life of me I can't find, talking about how "ironically" engaging with and telling 4chan style bigoted jokes eventually leads to the individual believing the rhetoric behind them. The path from ironic jokester telling "edgy" jokes to right wing bigot is a topic that has been well tread. But I haven't seen the same applied for the Left, and I think it's part of why we've seen such extreme abandonment of professed Leftist ideals since October. If you've exist or have existed in Leftist spaces in any capacity you will often find "jokes" about blowing up businesses, police departments, houses of politicians, and guillotines. These typically get the usual "haha, I wish" in some capacity and reflect the American Left's distrust, disgust, and dislike of our current system and all its faults. But, like the above 4chan right wing irony pipeline, this type of "ironic" humor leads to radicalization as well. It would make sense that if 4chan edgelord style jokes lead to right wing bigotry then Lefty edgelord style jokes would lead to left wing bigotry. This would explain, in part, why we so many Leftist spaces and individuals openly endorse violent acts of terrorism. Many of these jokes contain antisemitism in some form, they're just hidden behind the veneer of Left wing jargon to make them acceptable. They're not outright calling someone a k***, but they are alluding to antisemitic conspiracies. After enough jokes are told and time passes then people believe in it (and anecdotally I now realize I know some people who were radicalized this way). So yeah...be careful of your "ironic" jokes and the persons who tell them. It's a potential path to bigoted radicalization.

[markscherz]

do you like tuataras ..

Yeah they're okay I guess

[morverenmaybewrites]

Hi babes, long time no see....? (Not realy, not truly. But i'm bored and in need of the weight your words press evenly onto my lungs. And i also want to poke you, maybe)

What would be the prise and/or compliments Jason could be fine with? To you, with our delivery girl. Because anything phisical feels dependent on the day, how Aware and squeezy it'll make him. (Like how you suddenly remember that there's clothes on your skin and that your organs move inside of you. That you're Breathing and that it pulls at your muscles, the tissue that's marbled in tapestried along his ribs.)

What would Not do that? (Less so atleast. See: Like skin growing over a splinter istead of rejecting it.)

Also!

This. Made me feel the sudden ache of my heart durring that time in my life. 'S cool. Thanks. 👍

Always so good to hear from you, @thebluespacecow. First off, The Shape of Water is one of my comfort watches/reads. The book, in particular, encapsulates the feeling of isolation from society and the suffocating loneliness that comes from it so well. The quote (said to the Asset by the scientist studying him) so perfectly portrays their relationship and the tragedy of what could have been. The text often refers to (and eventually confirms) that the Asset is a god. It often calls him beautiful and magical and wondrous. Can you imagine finding god, in all his grace and savage beauty, and being told that you must study him like an insect pinned to a corkboard? Can you imagine finding proof of the divine, only to be told to burn it down so that the charcoal of its bones can help fuel a war? It's so tragic. One day that Bucky Barnes Shape of Water!AU WILL come into existence. ONE DAY. Anyway. Your question. What would be the prise and/or compliments Jason could be fine with?

I actually think that Jason would be fairly receptive to praise, actually! It doesn't immediately put him on the defensive the way physical forms of affection would. And for most of his life, Jason didn't get much of either. He craves it, however unknowingly, like a man dying of thirst would crave rainwater.

I think the first time you praise him, however small, however innocuous, would always come as a surprise. He's just not that used to it. Maybe he opens a jar for you or point out, where, exactly you had put the spices. (He is, at least, somewhat aware of how much he pays attention to you.). "Thanks, Jason, you're always so helpful." The words scatter from you like birdseed, there and gone again. It barely disturbs the still air of the kitchen. But Jason freezes, and slowly turns to look at you. You're not even looking at him anymore. Instead, you are focused on the recipe you're reading, mumbling to yourself. (In his experience, praise does not come so easily. It comes from long hours of training to perfect his aim, from endless nights of study, it comes from a grueling patrol, done perfectly, to Batman's exacting standards.) (In his experience, he barely does anything praise-worthy at all. He is, after all, the Robin who failed.) The moment passes, and he is able to brush it off. But your words linger in his mind like a thorn, only the sensation is not so unpleasant. The next time you do it, Jason is a little more prepared. Maybe he comes up with a clever solution to a problem, taken down a villain in an unconventional way. And you say it in between fits of laughter (and even the sound of that warms him like a fire in winter). "That was smart. I never would have thought of that." Jason pauses, has to catch his breath. And he mumbles out an answer so low that it's unlikely that you heard it. "Thanks." After that, it gets easier. After that, he seeks it out like a cat seeking out a beam of sunlight (or perhaps, more accurately: like a starved dog seeks out scraps). "You never told me you were such a good cook." "It's nice having you around. You make me feel safe." "You look good today." The last one though, hits like a punch to the gut. It knocks the wind out of Jason, and he has to take several seconds before he can answer.

"What?" You look up from the book you are reading. (It is raining the way it always is in Gotham, and you had chosen to spend the afternoon inside. Curled up with a thick blanket on your lap, in a sweater that is big enough for you to drown in—he would not question it if the compliment had been directed at you. He would have taken it as your due.) "Hm? I said you look good today." Again, he does not answer. Instead, he looks down, as if expecting to find himself wearing someone else's skin. But he is wearing his outfit, it is the Red Hood's helmet in his hands. For the first time, you seem to have realized the effect your words have on him. "Well, don't get a stroke," you say with a grin. "I don't want you coming back here and saying you're leaving me for a supermodel or something." He lets out a strangled laugh, and tries to brush it off the way he did in the kitchen, all those months ago. He turns away and tries to pretend like your words don't haunt him like a ghost. You said he looked good. You said he looked good. (And after all, what reason would he have to doubt you? He trusts you more than he trusts himself.) He finds that he has to put on his helmet to hide his grin.

[toasted-raccoon]

i know I'm overcomplicating things but how did the 2d dimension work. like bill ate sandwiches. what are the sandwiches made of? if the beings are shapes then wouldn't bill the triangle eating a triangular sandwich be cannibalism?? in what way a triangle is alive but a triangular sandwich isn't

[zombified-queer]

Something something the Manager and the Concierge's appearances are nice to look at because they serve as the Hotel's lures to put guests at ease while the Lobby Boy and Bellhop put people off because you're not supposed to notice them.

[mynonclicheblog]

it's probably not healthy how often i imagine portland row years into the future, after the trio's talents have faded, where they no longer hunt ghosts together but they find other ways to pay the bills and never move out because they just love the little home they've made here, and lucy and lockwood are an actual couple and george simply tolerates it because he loves them individually so much and can't imagine life away from either of them, which is good because lucy and lockwood wouldn't have it any other way

i don't know if this is compatible with book canon in the long run, but thinking about it just. soothes my soul. it is everything i want for them

[waterdeep-weavemoss]

tav pointing a finger at astarion in anger during a fight and he takes her hand and bites it, watching her face as he drinks, and tav is so totally blindsided by him sucking on her fingers she forgets what the argument even was

[mariaalenkoshepard]

I have a new gameshow idea it's called 'Kent or Connecticut' and contestants have to read facts about Clark and guess which one it's about

[finalgirlsamwinchester]

tbh mystery spot exists as an exception to me in the Unhinged Sam Discourse bc. what person wouldn't go a bit mad under those conditions. the conditions being having to watch your loved one die, over and over, ad infinitum. and being rendered powerless to stop it.

[p4nishers]

absolutely fascinating to me that the stakes theyre setting up for the next two episodes is almost entirely related to mobius. like MOBIUS will lose his skin. MOBIUS has his memory erased and placed back on the sacred timeline. sylvie and loki’s “romance”? huh? whos she?

atp it's not loki x sylvie romance its mobius x marvel bc they're OBSESSED w him. as they fucking should be.

[misscammiedawn]

Hey, Cammie, how many hats can you wear at the same time?