#Verse { the survived. }

[james-spooky]

NAME-DROP NUMBER 1000000 !!! WELCOME BACK ❤️

[doghart]

i’m catching up on tsv, i think something that eskew prod does extremely well is using horror absurdism to capture the absurd horror of capitalism. it’s clear in eskew too, but i think it’s especially fantastic in the silt verses. the casualness with which sacrifice is discussed. how red lobster has a god that has and continues to take human sacrifice, and so do cereal companies, cops, and the grueling start up that has a “fun room”. it captures EXTREMELY well how it feels to live under capitalism, that you’re constantly bombarded with horrible things, discussed cheerily in a nice tone. the way it’s simultaneously numbing, hysterical, and horrifying. i think i was especially fond of how in ep 39, protest against sacrifice was taken as radical, a propostorus, idealistic thing that’s just so SILLY it’s not even worth considering, something that feels very real to revolutionary organizing/protest irl. i also liked how despite the face, when everything gets down to it, when everything is about profit, all people come down to are bodies. all capitalism is a gaping maw, and it eats the poor and marginalized first, but doesn’t STOP eating just there. the very literalized version of this, where the profit wheel (and all that includes— war mongering, the prison industrial complex, wage labor, etc) is given a very real literal set of teeth, but the body count is the same. so the electric company has a god, and so it takes humans sacrifice. do real electric companies not have a very real human cost? overworked and underpaid labors looking to make rent, or well off comfortable employees no less likely to get the axe under profit margins, or the blood shed when colonizing in the first place, in clearing the space for the electric company to move in. is that not also a very real human sacrifice? the commercial aimed at elderly people talking about “back in my day, we would just talk about all this human sacrifice and find a compromise :)” is so bleakly hysterical, but is that not very accurate? that you can put a good face on it, but in the end what it comes down to is that you’re being sold the chance to be human fodder? that there is no glory or honor on a battlefield or in working yourself to death, just mud and shit and bodies to throw at problems. idk! i’m rambling but it’s a deeply engaging podcast.

[thatrandombystander]

"average person kills 1 sibling in their lifetime" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person kills 0 siblings. Brother fratricides Faulkner, who lives in a cult & adopts new siblings to kill, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[cherrywhite]

I keep thinking about Carpenter's final moments of the podcast and I cannot stop thinking how, despite everything, she was still choosing to move forward and live on. Her brother is dead. She just had to say goodbye to him for the final time. Her friends are fled from her, with no certainty if she will ever catch up to them (and it will haunt me, that she will never know that Hayward died. That he got the ending he wanted even if it might not have been the reunion Carpenter had hoped for them. And if she does suspect what ultimately happen to him, it will haunt me that she chooses to believe they both made it out despite the odds). She's all alone.

And she could find a nice spot and wait for her ending. Lie down and let the long grass take her. But she chooses to get back up. To dream of some sort of future, with cats perhaps, where she lives on. Gets a haircut. Raises a toast to her friends. She will choke on her Nana's song, "There'll be no more need for hurt, word or deed. For sorrow," she will choke on the words and forget the lines and brokenly laugh at the absurdity of it all in the midst of all that grief as she chooses to trudge on, aching and in pain.

"I'll see you back around here another time soon." she says.

[whaliiwatching]

a taste of hannibal, a touch of megamind, a shot of venom (pours the whole damn bottle)

i love venom (2018) a lot, it’s my go-to movie when i’m bored or sad, i have seen it many many times. i saw it again a week or so ago with a bud and finally had the opportunity to pen down this lovely au i’ve been thinkin bout

i’ve got a much more fleshed out sketch of how this au plays out. not sure if i’ll write it yet

anyway some bullet points

noir (called, ofc, noir) arrives on earth-138 in the 1920s. his first host is robbie and they basically go through the venom movie, where noir slowly learns to love earth and humanity and all that jazz. up until the 50s or so they’re an investigative reporter and occasionally a scary vigilante superhero!

when robbie is killed (not ewaf style. i forbid it), it fucking devastates noir and he host-hops for a bit, doing fun anarchy things to keep up robbie’s legacy but also losing a few morals here and there. he can do a little murder and eat nazis as a treat

the symbiotes arrive en masse and osborn infects humans with them to turn into his fascist riot police army

through vampire-hunting-esque shenanigans, hobie and noir meet, and strike up a tenuous truce to fight the government. hobie does not like him at first, but noir very much does ;)

cue a slow burn gothic romance between a freedom fighter and a devoted monster <3

[eatnightmares]

faulkner naming himself falconer is like. carpenter being brought up with the belief you’re born either to water or land so what happens if you’re neither. what if you belong nowhere, what if you belong somewhere your siblings can’t follow you. what if you try to join them in the water but you can’t swim and now your wings are too weighed down to fly away.

[poetrysmackdown]

what makes a poem a poem? does it have to be written in a certain way? is this question a poem if i want it to be?

Fun question! This is just my personal sense as an avid reader and less-avid writer of poetry, but for me it’s useful to distinguish (roughly) between poetry as a genre and poetry as an attitude or philosophy through which language and the world can be understood. And of course these two go hand in hand. I see poetry the genre as essentially a type of literature where we as readers are signaled, somehow, to pay closer attention to language, to rhythm, to sound, to syntax, to images, and to meaning. That attentive posture is the “attitude” of broader poetic thinking, and while it’s most commonly applied to appreciate work that’s been written for that purpose, there’s nothing stopping us from applying that attentiveness elsewhere. Everywhere, even! That’s how you eventually end up writing poetry for yourself, after all. There’s a quote from Mary Ruefle floating around on here that a lot of folks have probably already seen, but it immediately comes to mind with this ask:

“And when you think about it, poets always want us to be moved by something, until in the end, you begin to suspect that a poet is someone who is moved by everything, who just stands in front of the world and weeps and laughs and laughs and weeps.”

Similarly, after adopting the attentive posture of poetics, there’s plenty of things that can feel or sound like a poem, even when they perhaps were not written with that purpose in mind. I’ve seen a couple of these “found poems” on here that are quite fun—this one, for example. The meaning and enjoyment you may derive from the language of a found poem isn’t any less real than that derived from a poem written for explicitly poetic purposes, so I don’t see why it shouldn’t be called poetry.

That said, I do think that if you’re going to go out and start looking for poetry everywhere, it’s still important to have a foundation in the actual language work of it all. Now, this doesn’t mean it has to be “written in a certain way” at all! But it does mean that in order to cultivate the attentiveness that’s vital to poetry, one needs to understand what makes language tick, down at its most basic levels. It will make you better at reading poetry, better at writing it, and better at spotting it out in the wild.

Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook is an extraordinary resource to new writers and readers, and a great read for more experienced folks as well. Mary Oliver’s most popular poems are all to my knowledge in free verse, and yet you might be surprised to find her deep appreciation for metrical verse (patterns of stressed/unstressed syllables), as well as for the most minute devices of sound. In discussing the so-called poetry of the past, she writes,

“Acquaintance with the main body of English poetry is absolutely essential—it is the whole cake, while what has been written in the last hundred years or so, without meter, is no more than an icing. And, indeed, I do not really mean an acquaintanceship—I mean an engrossed and able affinity with metrical verse. To be without this felt sensitivity to a poem as a structure of lines and rhythmic energy and repetitive sound is to be forever less equipped, less deft than the poet who dreams of making a new thing can afford to be.”

In another section, after devoting lots of attention to the sounds at work in Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, she writes,

“Everything transcends from the confines of its initial meaning; it is not only the transcendence in meaning but the sound of the transcendence that enables it to work. With the wrong sounds, it could not have happened.”

I hope all this helps to get across my opinion that what makes a poem a poem is not just about the author's intention, and not just about meaning (intended or attributed), but also about sound and rhythm and language and history, all coalescing into something that rises above the din of a language we would otherwise grow tired of while out in our day-to-day lives.

I'll always have more to say but I'm cutting myself off here! Thanks for the ask

[comixandco]

The four Sages were called back into the past by Terrako and they remember it happening

Tulin got to meet his hero, Revali, and decided to be just like him, adopting his idol’s brash personality and drive. He practises Revali’s Gale and eventually comes up with his own way to show off his mastery of wind, and when trouble hits his home he rushes to fix it on his own to prove how strong he has become and because, like Revali, he can’t stand idly by while he knows there’s still things he can do.

For Yunobo, when he goes back and meets his ancestor Daruk, he is a very timid and reactive Goron. He needs a push from others to come up with ideas and carry plans through, and when bad things happen to him his first instinct is to use his fire magic as a shield, to wait until the threat has passed by or somebody else has come to save him. But when he is sent back in time to Divine Beast vah Rudania, for the first time he has to be the one doing the saving. Daruk encourages Yunobo and is proud of him from the moment they meet, and it’s this support that gives Yunobo the confidence to help fight against Calamity Ganon, and to start YunoboCo when he gets home.

For Sidon, meeting his family from 100 years ago is bittersweet. He is proud that he was able to protect his sister, and it’s a comfort to know there is a version of him who will grow up alongside Mipha because of his bravery and fighting prowess. But as much joy as he got from seeing her, hugging her, and hearing her voice again, it just reminds him of how unfair her death was, of just how young she was when she died and how he is now older even though he’s the younger sibling. And at the end of the war, when he’s returned to their original time, he has to readjust to her absence all over again, and in light of that is it really a shock he’d have her statue moved further away from his home? And it also explains why he’s so desperate to protect Yona from the sludge.

Riju in AoC still a new ruler to her people, despite her accomplishments in BotW, she still feels guilty over the temporary loss of the Thunder Helm and isn’t sure if she can lead the Gerudo. She has a lot of confidence but is quick to falter when things go wrong. Urbosa treats Riju as a capable fighter despite her young age, and teaches her that she should never give up, to keep trying even when her resolve falters. There is always something you can do, even when it’s just stalling for time until help can arrive. Urbosa guides her in mastering the Thunderhelm, and possibly begins teaching her to summon lightning herself after Kohga attempts to steal it, and at the end of their time together Urbosa tells Riju she’s certain she’ll lead the Gerudo well. Riju treasured her time being mentored by Urbosa so much that she considers what Urbosa would do during the Upheaval in her diary in TotK.

I think the entire reason Tulin was added to the DLC was because the TotK team had already decided that Tulin was going to be the Sage of Wind, and that since the other sages were going to meet their Champions Tulin had to as well.

At some point in the years between Botw and TotK Teba, Tulin, Sidon, Yunobo, Riju and Patricia were summoned back in time by Terrako to aid the Champions during the Calamity, and even though those events took place in a parallel timeline and had no bearing on the world they returned to, the Sages’ personalities at the beginning of TotK are because of their experiences during the Calamity and the bonds they made with the Champions.

[starwrittenfates]

@mysteriouself continued from X

As far as the world was concerned, Lara Dorren was dead--or at least that was the story she had wanted to be told long ago. It was better this way.

With all she had done-- leaving behind all she had known, falling in love with a human, and setting a target on him, it was best if the world believed she had died. It was also best for Riannon so she could live a full life, one away from constantly looking behind your shoulder or having ties to a destiny to fulfill. But of course, things didn't go as planned...when did it ever when it concerned her?

She couldn't return home, and Lara had no where else to go, but there was only one person she could think of--one person still alive that she could turn to. "Crevan..." she wasn't sure how to tell him, but it was what she owed him. "I know you're surprised to see me. You probably think I'm a figment of your imagination, but...I can tell you I am real and I am...alive."

Wanting to confirm his suspicions, Lara reached out towards him, hesitating at first, but then reaching gently for his hand.

[disastrousfeline]

finally caught up with tsv so i decided to do a quick drawing of my favorite sopping wet god-haunted religiously traumatized aroace old (not actually that old) woman

[livwritesstuff]

lol tiktok dropped *that* modern family scene on my fyp and i couldn’t help myself

“Ugh, god, Moe, just go away!” Steve heard one of his children yell from upstairs. It’s quickly followed by a bedroom door slamming, and then the telltale sniffling of one of his other children beginning to cry.

“The hell…” Eddie mumbled from his spot on the couch beside Steve, “Was that Hazel?” 

Steve didn’t answer immediately because these days, in the year of 2020, Moe isn’t typically a crier and Hazel certainly isn’t prone to yelling. Only when…

“Pop,” Robbie frantically interrupts his train of thought, “Have you seen my glasses? I’ve been looking for ages.”

Steve and Eddie turn toward their daughter to see that Robbie’s big tortoise-shell frames are already resting on the bridge of her nose.

Steve can only look at her while Eddie manages to say, “You try looking in the mirror, babe?”

Robbie’s hand flies to her face and immediately collides with her glasses.

“Shut up,” she mutters, even though both he and Eddie are wisely choosing to not react, and as she stalks away, Steve tips his head up to the ceiling.

“Ah, shit.”

Eddie looks at him, and a split-second later Steve sees recognition dawn on his husband’s face.

“You don’t think…”

Steve only gives a slow, blank-faced nod.

“Has that…has this ever happened before?”

“Don’t think so.”

"Is that," Eddie paused, shaking his head, "I thought it was a myth, the whole..."

"It is," Steve replies.

"Jesus Christ, so this is just our fucking luck, then?"

"Yep," he nods again.

Eddie looks at him, taking one of Steve's hands in both of his own and gripping it with a tight desperation.

“Steve. What the fuck are we supposed to do?”

“Uh, move, I think. We have to move, right? Like, this is their house now.”

[ragnarokhound]

for the au ask game—dimension or time travel au? 👀

For the AU ask game!

Ohhh this kind of au is always so fun because there's literally infinite directions to take this OwO the question for me becomes what would be the most fun/interesting time or sideways universe to send them (and if only one goes back in time, or both of them 👀) or what alternate reality would it be the most galvanizing for them to see... 👀

Oh. I know. I'm still in my cups over saltwateroracle AKA @n1ightw1ng's Arkham Knight Jason dimension hopping au so...

Five fun facts from a dimension hopping au I'd write:

Your choice of comics verse Jason and Tim who don't get along, enemies to coworkers style. But ala The Long Way Home (excellent fic btw everyone who cares about Jason and Tim's relationship whether romantic or platonic please go read it) they get warped together to Arkhamverse and don't realize it. At first.

Separately, they meet their arkhamverse counterparts. Jason nearly get blown up by Arkham Knight Jason, Tim has no idea what to make of his double being married? To? Babs? They meet back up and go 'you thought YOUR double was weird'

'you thought your double was weird, wait til you get a load of fucking BRUCE.' 'Is the batmobile? A tank??' Jason gets very sus of the 'suppressive rounds' Arkham Bruce fires at the mercenaries. Tim gets very sus of the whole ass people he's got stashed away at the batcave lmao

Arkham Bruce is running on such severely fucked up fumes that it makes them actively miss their own Bruce back home. They help him with rounding up Riddler and Scarecrow and with handling the thorny Arkham Knight problem, but absolutely are going to get betrayed 'for their own good' (or because Bruce doesn't trust them) eventually. So they find themselves leaning more and more on each other as the only familiar and trustworthy face in this fucked up dark clown maze version of Gotham

Things end better because of their influence than in the game (something something cure for jokerism something something Arkham Knight Jason gets catharsis/reconciliation and a shock blanket and some soup) and they get themselves home ASAP and everything 100% goes back to normal and they definitely will not be talking about how Tim totally kissed Jason when they thought they were going to die at the end there, nuh uh, no way, Tim has very important debriefings to write byyyye--

(Bonus fun fact: Bruce is very confused but ultimately accepts the out-of-the-blue check ins/hugs he receives from Tim and Jason with aplomb. He reads Tim's report and goes 'Ah. Yes, dimension hopping will do that to a motherfucker'. He can't follow-up with either of them though, for some reason they've both gone dark for a week. Together. At the same safehouse. Hm. Better to leave that one alone, he thinks.)

[gravedirtandbriarthorns]

Going insane relistening to the finale and Wow, you sure do get to choose what devours you, huh? Like that was obvious on a lot of fronts (Paige is devoured by the starving god she chose to birth, Hayward dies having chosen to put his faith in Paige and follow her to the ends of the earth, Val is consumed by the power of the choice she made to become a saint, Faulkner chose the image of his own self-importance when it mattered and he drowned for it)

But man. Carpenter didn't hit me immediately until it clicked that like. Yeah, she's been walking towards this the whole time but it's because of the choice she made to return to the parish of tide and flesh so long ago. She let Mason convince her to choose to come back into the fold, and from that point she's always been walking to where she ends: gunned down by government soldiers on the banks of the White Gull trying to remember how her peoples final death rites went. Like that's the scene that quote comes from, isn't it. Her friend at the diner joking about how the best you can hope for is getting to choose what devours you in the end? Right before she chooses the thing that puts her on the path to her inevitable death.

And that's just like. Yeah.

[cherrywhite]

AND HERE'S HOW HAYWARD CAN STILL LIVE (<- in denial)

[aikidoheroine]

it had been some months since Tenko and Yui last spoke. In that time Yui had traveled to America, got a tan and came back refreshed. She was ported onto a case in which she cleared easily. Right now, she was in a bar with the other detectives celebrating their legal victory. Yui had called Tenko since she wanted to catch up with her but hadn't gotten a response. Yui's drink fizzles as the bartender slides it to her not realizing anything out of the ordinary yet after she took a few sips she was a bit woozy. Her vision doubled as she got up stumbling before a red-haired man helped her to her feet. Unfortunately for Yui she passed out right as he performed such a "kind" gesture. He volunteered to take her home so she could sleep off the drinks. The man slowly drags the detective out the door and into the cold night air.

Out of nowhere, Tenko got a message from Yui Samidare. It had been a while since she met with the detective, didn't mind meeting up with her. It had slipped Tenko's mind to respond as she made her way to the area where Yui had said she would be. Yet all the friendly greetings that Tenko had planned completely vanished from her mind when she saw the man dragging Yui behind her. Tenko didn't even say anything or think about her actions. The aikido master immediately rushed behind the man to smack his head with her fist.

[theyluvbix]

"Fuck you my child is completely fine" your child sees itself in gwen stacy 😐😐😐😐😐