#because that is like a whole other different dimension of thing and it conveys it accurately

[diluc33rpm]

1/2 Do you think you really understand your gender and sexuality?

yeah this is a rough approximation of what it looks like

[sunderwight]

Scenario where PIDW Bingge had something like the fucked up baby dimension from Fire Emblem: Fates for handling his kids.

For those who haven't played enough Fire Emblem games: in Fates you can hook up various characters who will, once they've bonded sufficiently, get married and have children. Because there is a dangerous war on and nobody has time for childcare, these babies get sent to various pocket dimensions where time moves differently, where they are raised by servants. They then reappear in the story as adults (mostly) who are also just like, barely younger than their own parents. This is of course hilariously fucked up, for even more reasons than what a simple overview can convey, and it's also just kind of shrugged off by the narrative despite the many, many bewildering implications involved.

So I'm imagining Airplane stealing this whole concept and sitting down to write about Bingge sending all of his children away in order to protect them from his enemies or whatever other excuse, creating special nursery dimensions with Xin Mo only to not really spend any time with his offspring at all, resulting in a lot of them growing up extra fast and reentering the story as adults at wildly unpredictable intervals (i.e. whenever Airplane feels like it without having to remember the timelines involved because *waves hand* time passes differently in the different dimensions too). For the daughters, this just gets them married off into alliances (if they're even mentioned at all, because Airplane doesn't want to write incest and there's basically only one reason female characters get mentioned in this story), but for the sons, this usually has them showing up as upstart challengers to their father's throne. With a conclusion, generally, of them getting their asses kicked and then being sent back to their pocket dimensions with their tails between their legs (Binghe killing his own kids would be too reprehensible, after all). Sometimes (rarely) they become loyal generals. One or two have died to fuel revenge arcs. The protagonist halo extends only limited benefits to his kids.

Anyway, Shen Yuan of course reads all of this and absolutely hates it. What do you mean Binghe doesn't even raise his own kids?! What do you mean even their mothers don't?! Shen Yuan understands that Luo Binghe is an important guy with important things to do, but handling it this way makes it impossible to even consistently visit his children on their birthdays! They'd be having birthdays every day because they're all on freaking Narnia time! And of course his sons keep growing up and trying to overthrow him, surely Binghe himself should appreciate that under these conditions, his children are going to see the servants raising them as parents more than some distant emperor they've never met...? Not to mention, if time moves quickly in these dimensions, theoretically Binghe could just stay there with his kids himself and not have to worry too much about things changing in his realm, because only a few months would pass there! He could have it both -- spend plenty of time with his kids and not worry about neglecting his responsibilities! So why doesn't he do that?!

The answer (never actually provided by Airplane) is that Bingge doesn't really feel a strong connection to his children, and because of his reverence for his adoptive mother, he thinks that giving them peaceful lives with simple people to raise and love them is the kindest thing he can do for them. If he could have had an idyllic childhood with his mother in a place where nothing could harm him, he would have never sought power at all.

But of course, Binghe's kids aren't thinking "oh gosh yeah my humble childhood in a magic dimension was much better than starving on the streets!" because that wasn't ever going to be their fate in the first place. Instead they all develop varying complexes about being sent away by their impossibly remote father and his giant harem.

Possible fic ideas involving this setup:

-Bingyuan where Shen Yuan transmigrates into the intended tutor of one Luo Binghe's most troublesome sons. SY arrives in the baby dimension and immediately bonds with the little Luo, gets really mad about the whole situation all over again, and when Bingge shows up for a rare visit, rips him a new asshole about it. Romcom shenanigans ensue.

-Scenario where SV's Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe decide they're ready to adopt, and SQQ figures out a back door into PIDW Binghe's baby dimensions and just sort of, ehm, borrows some of the children he knows had really bad times in the novel (not all of the idyllic upbringings worked out, there were instances of the dimensions being attacked and the servants there being killed and etc). Bingge eventually finds out. Dramatics ensue.

-When PIDW Binghe tries to summon a Shen Yuan of his own to the PIDW world using Xin Mo, it accidentally creates some stability issues with the baby dimensions. Shen Yuan get teleported in and out of these dimensions instead, bonding with the kids there to various degrees, only to be swept away every time Bingge tries to use Xin Mo to find him again. A handful of years later, a bunch of new Heavenly Demon scions emerge as adults with the Luo family's Shizun Complex in full swing, right around the same time that Bingge finally captures Shen Yuan. Hijinks ensue.

[fauustic]

crimson staining the cement

i needed to get this out of my system before i sleep ... i have so many thoughts of a very in love but obsessed/possessive miguel who is just too jealous and overprotective but is still a sweetheart.

im still taking requests so please do feed my imagination

gender-nonconforming reader x miguel “spider-man 2099″ o’hara drabble

warnings: depictions of violence, poessiveness, overprotection in the term of obsession. jealousy. blood, biting. definitely something i haven't wrote about a lot.

Miguel knew that underneath his constant need for your affection and reassurance, he was a jealous, jealous man.

Beyond his stoic expression conveyed to anyone other than you, the moment another individual other than him made advances towards you his jaw would tense and his talons instinctively unsheathe into his palms. His mind blanks at the idea of someone invading the space that only he is allowed to occupy.

It's not like he feels as if he owns you, his anxiety and worries stem from feeling as if you are too out of reach for him, on a whole different dimension because you were human and lively, everything he was not. Miguel O'Hara, a shell of who he was once before, viewed himself as something grossly supernatural and devoid. In his mind, your companionship was a necessity for him to live. He's never felt more alive than with you, and now that he's had a taste of what he's been missing he can't seem to detach his fangs from you, his prey caught by the neck.

So when he's pushing his way through a crowd of scientific elitists and spots some prick practically hovering over you with a sneer, an absolutely primal rage floods his vision and the only thing he can think about is you and ripping the rich pervert limb from limb. And Miguel truly was contemplating the idea until your anxious scouting finally pinpointed him, in which he assumed you excused yourself with haste because of how quickly you departed from the prick before pushing through the crowd to reach his embrace.

Miguel hated settings such as this, being dragged to go to social gatherings due to his position at his job, but the only reason he dragged himself to come was because of you. You urged him to try and do the things he hated, pressed him to experience new things. And he allowed it, with the only condition that you had to be strung along with. With a smile, you always more than happily agreed.

Yet everytime the two of you arrived at a fancy getup, someone stupid enough to bother you had to interrupt your happiness. Which ultimately ruined his contentment.

Miguel was never mad at you, could never bring himself to hurt you unless it was the marks he made with loving bites and harsh kisses. 

But he was not below hurting someone to make a statement. And when someone got hurt, they had to be silenced because then they knew too much.

It never bothered Miguel much to dispose of those who hurt you, who sunk their blunt nails into your flesh and made you nauseated from their unwanted creepy flattery. He was just doing what he needed to do, protecting his responsibility. Get rid of the problem, no?

As his fists met the sickening crunch of cartilage and bone, the street lights painted his figure into a canvas filled with glistening crimson. It was a gruesome masterpiece, he thought. Like a spider trapping a fly, poking its tendrils against its food like a toy.

When his instincts overdrive his rationality, he doesn't think of himself as Miguel O'Hara anymore. He was simply the predator that crafted his genetics, the spider that altered his being.

The tear of skin as talons claw into the marred flesh of another elitist scum, who just hours before had the audacity to belittle what you wore in Miguel's earshot, calling you unsavory things such as a "whore, or slut." He had been itching all night to get his hands on the pathetic lump of a man, yet when his red-clouded gaze fell upon the mess against his crisp, standard black suit vest tailored around a white dress shirt rolled up to his elbows. 

Wiping the blood splatter off his cheek with a swipe of his arm, Miguel spat on what was left of the man who viewed you, and probably many others, as an object of desire and nothing more. It made him sick.

He'd clean up before arriving to your flat, a place where he found himself most comfortable within. Without you, his own home felt frigid. A mirror of who he was, which he hated the idea of being alone in.

So when you felt your boyfriend's arms wrap around your hips in the softness of your duvet, you were blissfully unaware of just what he was doing earlier that night. His fangs sunk into your unexposed shoulder, a purr vibrating against the bite as fuzziness soothed his haunting thoughts.

It was common for him to sink his teeth into you as a form of relief after long days, your body growing used to the intrusion. 

"Love you so much, my darling." You murmured into your pillow, mind foggy with sleep as he unlatched himself from you just to bury himself in your chest. His nails scratched your back, tracing stars and circles mindlessly as he purred.

"Love you so much more, mi vida." His grip on you tightened subtly, "would do anything for you and more."

You simply giggled in response to his declaration, calling him a big teddy bear, before brushing your fingers in his soft curls. Giving him a sweet peck on his lips and one last lingering kiss to the nose, the two of you drifted to sleep with nothing on your mind but one another.

[rivangel]

AOT MANGA SPOILERS!

i think what Ymir Fritz was after her whole life (and afterlife) was true love. or at least proof of it.

(read ch122 for her full backstory (which is a masterclass in visual storytelling and storytelling in general) but...)

we don't learn a single thing about Ymir as a person beyond that she seems to long for love from the time she was a child.

also, she more than anyone (in the aot universe) knows endless, merciless suffering. from a very young age she knew the world was cruel.

that’s the reason in my mind that - after getting the power of the Titans - she didn’t rebel against the king. she didn’t run away. she did whatever the king asked of her because for once in her life she was wanted. even in this completely backwards and transactional way, all Ymir knows of love is this, even though it’s just slavery at its core.

so the king got married to her and she had her three daughters, who Ymir doesn't find love in either. it seems her children are more proof of her enslavement. Ymir doesn't even find that true love she wants in her own daughters. she's still miserable.

13 years after she got the power, there’s an attempt on the king’s life, without hesitation she protects him. she, effectively, is willing to face certain death to that end.

so we establish this. to Ymir, love = self-sacrifice.

i feel that Ymir finally reaches the end of her ability to "love" the king. this is her breaking point. her final misery among a thousand other miseries she's accepted from him.

she isn't loved. she was willing to give her life, and yet he doesn't love her.

after this rejection, she doesn’t heal herself. we know that in order to use the Titan powers, you have to have a goal (the way Eren learned to transform in The Spoon Incident and later, Reiner doing something similar to Ymir). but she was finished.

Ymir had the power to manufacture a dimension without life or death. the paths. and would spend 2,000 years there doing what she always did and obeying her “king” - the Eldian with the Founding Titan. she wouldn't serve her king directly anymore, but enslavement is Ymir's only definition of love, so that's what she will continue to do.

until she observes a true display of true love.

now (and this is interesting) this is where the concept of the Ackermans come in. i explain in this, this, and this post the Ackermans and the Ackerbond, which is important for understanding this post.

so first, why Mikasa? why would she specifically be the one to free Ymir?

at the time the chapter came out, people criticized Isayama and Eren not knowing how Mikasa was the key the giving Ymir peace. but think about it. Eren doesn't know the depths of Ymir's heart, true. he also got the same exact omnipotence Ymir had thanks to (1) possessing the Founding Titan and (2) effectively having royal blood thanks to the way he enslaved Zeke. Eren has the same exact knowledge that Uri or Frieda had.

but of course, Eren wasn’t BUILT to be god. he has no right to it. Grisha gave him the Founding Titan and he forced Zeke to use his royal blood. Eren says that he started experiencing the past, present, and future all at the same time. of course he wouldn’t know why it’s Mikasa.

what we do know is that the timeline of aot is linear, and can’t be changed. i talk more about that in my Eren character analysis.

the person to ultimately give Ymir peace was going to be Mikasa no matter what. how?

1: being an Ackerman means possessing Titan powers while being a human. would that not also mean that an Ackerman has a special connection to Ymir?

it's different from being a Titan shifter. the potential to awaken their Titan-like powers are their birthright.

2: I linked above my thoughts on the “Ackerbond”. but in a nutshell, Ackermans have the best of both worlds. made to be obedient “Titan-like” tools to protect the king. to be the strongest slaves. while also possessing the best trait of a human being, and that’s the ability to love (as Isayama conveys in aot). so a major trait in Ackermans, i think, is this enhanced ability and propensity to love one special person.

what’s so striking about this from what would be Ymir’s point of view is that, like her, Ackermans have the traits of a Titan like she did, but Ackermans CHOOSE who they are “enslaved” to. it’s not slavery at all. what a shock that must be to someone like Ymir, I mean right?

Levi and Mikasa have their respective moment of “a display of true love” towards their lieges in the series. i want to compare.

Erwin and Levi.

to be succinct, Levi shouldered the weight of Erwin’s sins. [i talk about it more here and in the second half of this post here]. Erwin puts not his life in Levi’s hands, but what comes after. someone putting their trust in their other even in the face of certain death, certain grief, is a major display of true love. (as Isayama conveys in aot that is.)

then, both despite and because of Levi’s love for Erwin, he was strong enough to end his suffering. to let him rest, even though he had the choice to bring him back. that is a major display of true love.

Erwin and Levi both sacrifice aspects of themselves for the other.

what do Levi’s and Mikasa’s moment both have in common?

the willingness to share the weight of their liege’s sins, their darkness, their shortcomings, their most vulnerable sides. that's unconditional love.

But Mikasa’s moment is even more special to Ymir.

Eren’s sins are obviously much more grievous and unforgivable than Erwin’s. that speaks more to how much value Mikasa’s “display of true love” has objectively. and, Mikasa wasn't able to "bring Eren back". (besides obvious plot reasons).

even though it was certain that Eren wasn’t going to be forgiven, that he would have to die, Mikasa’s love never wavered.

both despite and because of Mikasa’s love for Eren, she would be the one strong enough to end his suffering.

Mikasa and Eren both sacrifice aspects of themselves for the other.

Ymir had no one willing or strong enough to end her suffering.

Ymir believes true love is love enduring even in the face of certain grief through mutual sacrifice.

and that’s why she is seen smiling when Mikasa kills Eren. with that, Ymir is finally at peace.

[hyumjim]

Audiobooks add a whole other dimension to this conversation because like I won’t tell people who listened to the audiobook that they didn’t read the book even if they… well technically they didn’t read it. But anyway, generally it’s considered to be the same as reading but like, on a material level it’s really not, for one thing there’s the simple fact that one of these things requires the skill of literacy and the other does not. (Listening requires the skill of sustaining attention, so it’s not like it’s inherently less valuable I guess, but it is markedly different.)

But perhaps more importantly, I think that something is always lost in the narration vs reading it for yourself. For example I once listened to Levar Burton’s reading of Kelly Link’s short story “The Specialist’s Hat,” and I enjoyed it, and therefore I am familiar with the story probably as much as most people who have read it. But I just recently saw a post where someone pointed out that in this story about identical twin girls, Link describes one twin’s eyes as “grey” and the other twin’s eyes as “gray.” And I was floored by that because I think it’s brilliant— this person was using this story as an example of how gray and grey actually have two separate connotations, and Link very deftly uses it to connote that the two characters have distinct moods even as they are physically identical. And this beautiful nuance of writing is something I missed out on altogether because I listened to it and didn’t read it. It’s something that there is just no way to convey through audio.

There are also a lot of books that I’ve read that would be basically unlistenable in audio format— I’m thinking of Nabokov’s “Pale Fire” just because I’m finishing up that one right now, but another obvious example is “House of Leaves.” Basically this applies to anything that’s even a little bit of an experiment in form… but I digress…

I guess as a writer and a reader and enjoyer of language it’s just a bit sad to think that people are listening to audiobooks on 2x speed just so they can meet some imagined quota, when the experience of actually reading words is just… so much more enjoyable and enriching, in my opinion. Yes it takes longer, but that’s okay. Reading isn’t something you do absentmindedly while you’re doing something else. It’s something you have to take time out of your day to do. And sometimes you don’t have time to do it. And that’s okay! You can read a little bit and not a lot. It’s not a race.

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

So, fandom seems to have all jumped on the Dream-can-shapeshift train. Mostly from Alex’s dream where Morpheus gets his revenge in the show. And then likely Tale of a Thousand Cats.

However in the comics, Alex is following the cat that was sacrificed to summon Death and then Dream shows himself. And it’s also a bit clearer that the cat (like any living thing) is viewing Dream’s feline aspect.

So the question is…do you think Dream (or any Endless) Can shape shift in canon? Or is this just a headcanon run wild because it makes for good fan fiction?

i mean, i'm never one for ruining fandom's fun, so i think if people are enjoying that headcanon, then by all means run wild with it - there's no reason why he couldn't, in theory, shapeshift

(he can certainly modify elements of his appearance, see: i hate it when you get big, or delirium changing forms every five seconds)

and i think going back to the comics it's not necessarily a given that the cat in alex's dream isn't dream?

however you are right in that shapeshifting is not normally what dream is doing when we see him change forms

and i definitely get where the confusion is coming from, particularly for show only fans, because the show doesn't really explain what's going on, the best you have to infer it is the kai'ckul scene, and if you haven't read the comics i think it's a little hard to follow that to the correct conclusion

but i think the actual answer is even cooler! so, for show fans who are interested, i'll avoid plot spoilers on this one, but to explain what's actually happening

the endless have thousands and thousands of forms, one for every species and culture that experiences them, in this case, everyone who dreams has a personalized Dream

and every endless is always all of those forms at once - it's likened to gemstones, in the comics, you only see one facet at a time, but that doesn't mean there isn't many more, and if you turn it you'll see a different shape - but the stone was always all of those shapes (and we'll never be able to see the true form of the endless in the same way you can't infer the whole diamond when all you can see is one triangle)

who knows how the endless see each other when they're alone, with no other creature to inform their shape, but the fact that dream always looks human is explicitly because the reader is a character in the story. we have to look at him to read the comics or watch the tv show, and therefore we will see him in a familiar shape

still, that familiar shape is nothing but whatever you call an optical illusion when it concerns all of your senses

it's not a hologram, you can touch him, he can interact with things, and it looks like he's doing so as a human - but the endless do bend reality just a little bit around them, and to a different species of observer dream's gonna interact with things in a slightly different way. again to the gemstones, it's like we're 2d beings trying to watch a 3d shape move around - there's always going to be some motion that seems nonsensical and makes it look like the 3d shape is changing forms, because we can't see that extra dimension informing it

even among humans, like we saw with nada - it doesn't always mean you'll see the pale skinny dream. it depends on who's watching

(what they were trying to convey in that scene in the show, is that matthew is seeing the dream played by tom sturridge the whole time, but nada only ever sees kai'ckul - dream doesn't change shape, the camera changes perspective)

so if a human and a cat are looking at dream at the same time, the human will see our familiar dream, and the cat will see the king of cats - but he's both, he's always been both, and he's never going to stop being both

and yeah, while i have absolutely no issue with "hob has to deal with meowpheus" fic (i say this with love, but let's be real, it's always dreamling fic), i'd love to see more of "hob has to deal with the realisation that dream is in cat form right now, he just can't see it"

[pomrania]

So in the notes of that "skywhalefall" post, I've seen a bunch of people calling it a type of "cosmic horror" and. Like. Either their definition of "cosmic horror" is a lot broader than it is for me, or I failed at getting across what I intended to convey, or I have a really fucked-up sense of what isn't "horror".

Suppose it's best to start with definitions. From what I've gathered, "cosmic horror" is a type of horror that focuses on how humanity is small and insignificant and powerless in the grand scheme of things, and what exists is far weirder than you could ever imagine, and a whole bunch of it is inherently "hostile" to life as we know it (not necessarily out of malice, just out of environmental incompatibility, like radiation). And, most importantly, it's HORROR; if the emotion you get from it is "wow there's so much cool stuff out there", then either the intended response failed to be engendered in the audience (due to lack of skill, or a changing context, or someone having a stupidly high threshold for "getting scared"), or it's not actually "cosmic horror".

I do not like "horror". I find it an entirely unpleasant emotion to experience. I do however like "weird stuff", alien creatures and environments completely outside of our normal experience. I love it in fiction, when it's able to be properly conveyed; and it's fascinating when it's NOT fiction, just a corner of our actual real-life world where what we take for granted doesn't exist and yet life still manages to be there. Like the really deep ocean.

(Some people call those weird-looking fish "nightmares". And like, it's true that you -- as a relatively large chunk of relatively undefended organic matter -- wouldn't necessarily be safe from them at least TRYING to eat you, but you'd have worse problems if you were in the same environment as them, like the temperature and the pressure and oh yeah the fact that it's completely under water so you wouldn't be able to breathe. And I don't know about other people, but for me, THAT aspect of it is more likely to show up in any nightmares I might have; you can theoretically frighten away or fight off any creature, but not the water surrounding you on all directions.)

I just... are people using "cosmic horror" these days to describe "thing that comes out of nowhere and is completely different to life as you know it"? Because that makes even LESS sense than using it to describe a particular aesthetic, since at least "tentacles" and "like only part of it can be shown in three dimensions at a time" are from foundational works in the subgenre. I mean, it's POSSIBLE to write cosmic horror describing, say, an actual-ass tortoise -- I've read that, it was cool -- but that doesn't mean an tortoises in general should be considered "cosmic horror".

Or is it like, it's considered "cosmic horror" if it forefronts how people aren't in control of everything in the world? Because, ah, that was just everyday reality for almost all of human history everywhere; and even when you don't have to worry about predators who might think you're prey, or the fickleness of weather for your crops, there's still natural disasters, and environments that are very much not hospitable to humanity. Does "being caught in a storm at sea" or "suffering from oxygen deprivation on a tall mountain" or "there's a wildfire" count as "cosmic horror" for people?

Maybe we just need a better term for "the universe is vaster and WAY stranger than you'd previously imagined", which doesn't include the "...and that's a bad thing, for you in particular" that you get for "cosmic horror". "Cosmic wonder" might work, if it didn't sound like a lipstick brand, or some New Age workshop.

[bloodtiesstilllives]

Strange Encounters #4

Today Henry goes somewhere that is completely out of his comfort zone.

And he is going to be shown around by none other than...Spike

Let's set the stage. Spike is just walking aro8nd. There hasn't been an event for a little while and he doesn't feel like dealing with the "Scooby Gang". If they need him, they'll find him.

Henry appears in a portal a few yards in front of him. This would be cause for alarm under normal circumstances, but this is Sunnydale. What's a gorgeous man coming out of a portal? More than likely big trouble, but what's trouble, this is Sunnydale.

Henry turns around to get his bearings and sees Spike. They look at each other, unmoving for the moment.

Spike speaks first. He points toward where the portal just disappeared and asks the stranger, "You lost?"

He let's the stranger know that if he is here to cause trouble, it's not going to end well. Henry straightens up and says that he isn't here to cause any trouble. This makes Spike scoff.

Henry sniffs the air and asks Spike what he is. Spike says , "I'm a vampire, mate."

Henry has a slightly amused, slightly confused face on. He says he is also a vampire, just from another dimension. He notices Spike tensing and calmly states that he will only be there for one week.

Spike asks, "So what are you, a tourist?"

Henry replies, "Something like that. Be careful what you wish for."

This makes Spike smile. He mentions that Henry smell weird too and so proceeds to check him by putting his Vamp face on. Henry returns the favor.

They both marvel at the difference in their vampirism. They take the time to inspect the differences. Spike calls Henry lucky and states that it must be easy to hide from he world's slayers.

Henry asks "Slayers?" And Spike gives a cursory explanation about what Slayers are in a voice that conveys "Duh".

Henry smiles and says that there are no "Slayers" in his world. He goes into the way vampires operate in his world.

When it's all said and done Spike says that it must be lonely and he has to take a cigarette break to digest what he just heard.

He doesn't ask about Henry's full name or age or anything like that. He is just glad for the company. Henry asks about the food situation. Spike tells him he has bagged stuff at his crypt. Henry let's him know he needs to take it fresh from the human.

Spike let's him know that if there is a rash of bodies showing up the towns Slayer would come around and jam a stake right up both their asses.

Henry acknowledges that it sounded unpleasant, but he would have no need to kill. He can take what he needs and his bite Mark's disappear as long as the human is still alive.

Spike calls bullshit on this and so he takes Henry out of Sunnydale for food. For observational purposes. Either this otherworldly vampire is a liar, in which case Spike would stop a line to Buffy and be done with it, or he is telling the truth and Spike would be ultra jealous.

The bastard told the truth. Hypnotised the prey, drank from them, and sent them on their way alive and unmarred. Well damn.

Henry is gracious about the whole crypt thing. They spend the week going around. Spike shows him here and their and Henry feeds easily enough. They speak about their favorite fashion era's. Spike even told Henry about his whole Billy Idol phase, explaining how he dressed in the 80s.

Henry tell Spike who he is and this shocks Spike because of how old Henry is.

Henry was really good company. Very intelligent and even though he was a man of high standing, he never talked down to Spike or made him feel less than. It was a good change of pace. And they were not bothered by anyone. Spike was sad to see him go. It was a pretty quick goodbye.

Once Henry left, things went back to normal, but at least Spike knew he had a good friend somewhere out in another dimension.

[apas-95]

what do you like about it? reads a bit too technical honestly

I think that's kinda the point, that it's an incredibly technical anomaly being worked on by proper scientists, which in any other context would be the most important discovery of the millenium - but one which, in the context of the foundation, isn't seen as important.

To me, it's basically 'what if a Liu Cixin story took place in the SCP universe?' and the answer is 'it's impossible to convey the importance of an incredibly complicated and technical matter to the people funding your research when that funding could be going to containing something a lot easier to understand, like a big lizard'. In the vein of Liu Cixin, it also places humanity in a very insignificant position - it's not that trillions of two-dimensional universes willingly destroyed themselves to send a minute, nigh-indetectable signal to us three-dimensional humans; their message for us was 'now you do the same, pass this on' - and even then, we weren't just to pass this on to four-dimensional beings or eventually to ten-dimensional beings, but 196,884-dimensional beings. Whatever we were being asked to sacrifice ourselves for is entirely beyond our comprehension. It mirrors the exact sort of existentially-miniscule you feel when you learn about things like the Monster Group, or about sorting algorithms that only optimise in 700+ dimensions.

Whatever these two-dimensional civilisations knew that was important enough to all independently come to the conclusion that destroying their own universes was worth the miniscule possibility of sending out a signal, whatever they *needed* to communicate, will be ignored by us, because, at the end of the day, they constitute a barely-anomalous rock posing no danger to anything, and studying that rock shut down, for decades, a whole sector of a site that also houses things that could end the world in so many different ways that the Foundation had to draw up a classification table. The only people with the specialised knowledge to understand and fervently care about it all disagree with each other, and the item only ever gets brought up in meetings discussing its budget alongside dozens of other completely inconsequential objects.

I don't think 2637 is the best SCP article ever made, but I think it's good, and underrated.

[opashoo]

have you ever done/will you ever do a speedpaint, timelapse, or tutorial on that lovely pixel art style you have there?

First of all, thank you, but also, I don't really have a process that's too different from pretty basic digital sketching/inking/coloring. I'll usually keep my canvases within a 500px to ~2000px range in either dimension in order to keep the aliasing of the pixels visible and meaningful, and focus on solid blocks of color instead of any gradients or blending. Other than that, I mostly just rely on certain tools to do a pixellated look.

Back when I used Paint Tool SAI, I used the binary brush and fill tool for pretty much everything. In order to make screentones, I would draw a pattern by hand, then copy and paste until I'd filled a whole layer, and then manipulate that with a clipping group.

Nowadays, I use Krita, which provides me with multiple tools that I can use for pixel art:

A fixed width brush that I can use for fine details, writing, or certain kinds of lining. I usually keep it anywhere from 1 to 5 px wide. For a short while, I was using it as my primary liner.

A dense dithering brush. Saves me time making those pixel screentones. They don't tend to play nice when people zoom out tho.

A half-as-dense dithering brush.

A pressure sensitive pixel brush. This is what I do a majority of my lining work with. The minimum width is 1px, and I usually keep the max at 8px.

Another fixed width brush that I usually leave on eraser at a super wide weight so I can erase things easily. Alternatively I'll switch off the erase and use it to paint huge areas a solid color.

Honorable mention: The fill tool.

This drawing, I used 4 for all the lining work, and 1 for the rectangle in the background and eyebrow piercing, since that's a really neat and regular shape. I used 2, 3, and the fill tool to create three different value levels.

With my latest drawing, I did basically everything on Panne with 4. I used no screentones for this drawing, opting instead to make things either solid black, or very tightly hatched by hand. Part of this decision was because I knew I was going to be coloring it, so I didn't need the screentones to convey value. The other part was that I wanted this drawing to look good regardless of the zoom level.

Meanwhile, everything in the background was done with the 1 brush, 2px wide so that I was working with a fixed width the entire time in order to help create a contrast: the fixed, fine lines of the background vs the wider, more variable and expressive lines on Panne.

In case it's helpful, here's what the Panne drawing looked like in progress. The point is that the work is pretty simple and straightforward as far as process goes. It's just sketch, ink, and color. It's mostly the tools that get me the distinct look I really like.

[davidlikebowie-noturaccountant]

that reblog on tbe tlp and dps post i made had me pondering over it for 10 minutes and im about to explode PLEASE SHARE MORE OF YOUR THOUGHTS BECAUSE THEY ARE SO TRUE AAAA

oh my GOD happily i love yapping about this??????

okay first my credentials: i have watched dead poets society 200+ times (i stopped counting, but i have it completely memorised beat for beat), i’ve read the novelisation, i’ve watched the little prince 50+ times and it’s one of my comfort movies, watched it on the plane like two days ago, and i own eight copies of the book in five different languages <3 so

more thoughts below the cut

NOW

i will say there are more obvious parallels to draw between dps and the tlp movie BUT the book has the same innate messaging in a way that is very very special to me. gonna start off with the more obvious things and then get more niche and specific and i will TRY TO MAKE SENSE.

so movie-wise, the aviator serves as the keating figure without a doubt (i would argue this is true in the book as well, but as the book lacks the mother/daughter-little prince all grown up/weird silly second dimension plot line, this parallel is more nuanced and i need to explain it more deeply) and the little girl is neil (though. in the book. undoubtedly the little prince) and her mom is mr perry etc. TODD IS THE FOX IN BOTH THE MOVIE AND THE BOOK AND I WILL ELABORATE but for convenience sake im splitting this up into movie thoughts and book thoughts so they dont get muddled

movie:

one of my favourite things about the little prince movie even though it adds like a whole plot that is not in the children’s book is that it conveys the message of the book VERY well, and a message with THAT MUCH NUANCE is really hard to put through, especially in an animated children’s movie. that being said, i feel like a lot of people don’t really THINK about it, just in the sense of knowing there’s a vague message but not really dissecting it, especially not in the same way that people dissect dead poets society. which i think is really interesting because their messages are fundamentally REALLY similar, with the little prince talking a lot about keeping your mind from getting closed with age and never forgetting wonder and creativity and interest. letting yourself be propelled by knowledge but not in a way that prioritises practicality over pure joy, and then dead poets society specifically preaching (though i’m loathe to use that word) to OPEN your mind THROUGH wonder and creativity and interest, to actively prioritise the joy over practicality at any moment you CAN.

(emphasis on when you CAN, though, because as keating says, there’s a time to be cautious and a time to be daring. sucking the marrow out of life does not mean choking on the bone. which, incidentally, is very similar to something that the aviator mentions in the book, i’ll come back to that)

as such, both movies center a child who is bearing the burden of these undue expectations that for most of their lives up until the point in the movie, they’ve happily pushed themselves to meet in order to keep the peace in their lives. they were perfectly happy (to an extent) being the child they were being asked to be. that is, until someone ACTIVELY shows them there’s more to it than that.

in fact, while one of these is an animated face in which there is not a clear view of much but the eyes and the other is an actual person, these are screen grabs of both movies in the first moments in which they are exposed to that which is going to show them there’s more than that, and i’d be inclined to argue they’re very similar. mild shock overtaken by awe, fixed stare on what they’re consuming (as far as the first page of the little prince vs keating quoting whitman)

this is when they’re starting to realise that they are more than a machine to please the adults in their lives (who are also written very similarly, with, of course, one notable exception: the mother is the one who ultimately realises she was not being fair to her kid, whereas mr perry doubles down and… well. you know.)

this awe-riddled inspiration, the epiphany of the Creative World being real and something they’re allowed to explore and enjoy is facilitated by both the one who did the introduction (the aviator/keating) and support and camaraderie with someone else (the fox/the poets) (yes i know the fox does not technically talk, however, it is clearly a sentient creature in the movie that provides comfort and companionship to the little girl and therefore i will in fact argue that it counts)

NOW i know i said todd is the fox in both iterations but in the movie i dont think the fox is limited to parallels SOLELY with todd, for instance, it very much encourages the little girl to continue with the story, with the aviator, and while it is occasionally like, covering its eyes out of fright, it’s largely serving to push her out of her comfort zone. as such. the fox is both todd and charlie. (the other poets as well but less so in the sense that i can NAME them and draw specific parallels, so mostly todd and charlie)

it is absolutely no secret to us that charlie and todd are the ones closest to neil in the movie, and that charlie and neil’s closeness definitely pre-dates neil and todd’s, and charlie takes neil’s idea of doing the dead poets society and RUNS with it, (lovingly) bullies everyone into coming, gets it to happen and sort of yells over any doubt that neil could have had that he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to do. todd is supportive but wary, and while the fox in the movie is not in the same capacity as todd in this sense i think there are certainly scenes where we see it just sort of become overwhelmed with what’s going on (like the first time they mess with the plane)

i could go into depth about the whole grown up world thing but that would make this much much longer

the rest of my thoughts are very much related to both the book and the movie and thus i will continue but centre them on the book

book:

i mentioned the messages of the little prince compared to dead poets society above and i just think that’s such a big thing for me because they really do mirror each other and showcase similar thoughts, this idea of the aviator sort of being forced to pursue “practical” things (i think specifically the book cites arithmetic and geography? i can’t remember right this second but i know arithmetic is one of them) and how even though he WAS forced to sort of let go of his personality that was creative, he never really did. he just was careful with who he let see it. which is very keating coded tbh like let’s be real if nolan knew what he was like he NEVER would have gotten that job. but i think specifically because he knew this already and was sort of reminded of it by the little prince LEARNING it it’s very much neil and mr keating. this is why i really think todd is the fox, you have the whole conversation in the book about taming (which i know is kind of in the movie but the book centres it in a way that is slightly different)

to tame people is to change. i will be unique in all the world. to me you will be unique in all the world. you are responsible forever for what you have tamed. when you leave i will cry. etc etc etc

todd and neil tame EACH OTHER. obviously todd is not neil’s first friend, but they have a relationship clearly different from neil’s with the other poets (romantic headcanon or not) because they really have TAMED each other.

also. i think mr perry views neil as his rose. that’s a whole other dissertation.

but. i think the reality is that the movies/book both centre creativity and seeking to understand pure thought in a way that is like two sides of the same coin, but there’s such little overlap that maybe it doesn’t feel obvious?

at the end of the day, there’s really no convincing me that

“what is essential is invisible to the eye, it is only with the heart that one can see rightly”

is not in fact another iteration of

“we don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute…. medicine law business engineering…. poetry beauty romance love, these are what we stay alive for”

because they’re so similar at their hearts.

tldr: the little prince and dead poets society actually carry similar characterisation and messages and i think that speaks a lot about both pieces of media, especially considering that one is literally meant to be for children. it’s almost like tlp is a precursor to dps. a warning to which dps is the result of ignoring. if that makes sense. i’m not sure any of this made sense but THANK YOU FOR ASKING

[aristaspark]

Winx Club Rewatch Season 1 episode 1 : An unexpected event

Thought I wanted to rewatch my all time favorite show, so why not document it^^

Also, I'm watching the French dub.

Bloom really took 1 second to shower and dry herself off, the talent

Vanessa doesn't know what vacations mean, let her sleep god damn it

I know why I related so much to Bloom when I was a child, she's literally me in the morning

She's so insufferable, I love it

I just know she wanted to burn that bike to its core

Stella the queen enters

The only time in the whole show where Knut will look slightly menacing

Stella's fairy outfit is the best of them all. These shorts fit her so well and orange is defenitly her color AND THE TWIN TAILS

Bloom, sweety, THINK BEFORE YOU THREATEN AN OGRE

She's lucky she turned out to be a fairy because he would have crushed her a** otherwise

I was so disappointed when I was like 4 years old that she used a freaking stick to save Kiko when she had freaking super powers

Rip Bloom iconic pants

The Trix are so mean and chaotic

Not the Knut slander

Why is that blue troll wearing a chastity belt and nipple piercings 😭 Little me never even questionned it. And he smells clothes like a perv. Urgh. Pretty sure he escaped from the BDSM dimension.

Mike really said we do not allow mental illness in this house. And the way he's calling Stella crazy to her face 😭

Stella, I guarentee you do not wanna live on Earth

Blue troll, you need a bra ASAP

Vanessa does not even seem a little fazed that magic is a thing

Mike is either deaf, or totally stupid either way HOW CAN YOU NOT HEAR OGRES BANGING ON YOUR DOOR

GIRL POWER GO BLONDIE

It's random but I like how it's conveyed in the animation that Stella has little to no space to fly because of the ceiling

I love how the little red demon bugs just wait for Bloom to get her shit together

Stella just went through a window and girl has no injuries, she's built different

Mitzy is so me idc about anything happening I just wanna hear the TV

The specialists are doing way too much I can't. They're not like the other boys. And it saddens me to say that Brandon is the worst of the bunch, he was so trying to prove something.

I wonder who will fix the road

Sky is already annoying, what's new

Bloom when she sees the males 🤭😗😊 (picture that Debby Ryan meme)

There's a hole on the ground, but Mike has ✨️principles✨️. He said, I'm not letting that blond weirdo do anything to my house

Bloom is very confident in her capacity to enter a school she did not apply for, good for her, I could never

Magix, the place where trees sparkles

[mysteryhackin]

After all these years*, finally, I have them all**

*only two **just this one thing

The Gravity Falls Vinyl finally came and it’s AMAZING! Review and spoilers under the cut:

First of all, Brad Breeck is a genius. Of course, we know that already, having watched the show and enjoyed the epic music, but hearing it by itself is awesome on a whole other level. His music conveys joy, sadness, nostalgia, adventure, creepiness, fun, excitement, suspense... it goes straight to your heart and makes you want to go on an adventure. And you hardly have to look at the track lists to know which part they go to. Like "Oh man, this is when Stan first turns on the portal and says "Here we go." " or "Ahhhh this is when Ford comes back ugh it's so good!" These instrumentals are instant seratonin.

The songs with lyrics are so great to hear on their own as well! A few from the show are missing (the ones that come to mind immediately are "Disco Girl" and the Manotaur Training Montage Song), and I'm not sure if it was due to licensing issues or artistic choices, but the ones that are included are so SO good. Like, how cool is it to own a physical copy of "Blanchin'", the song of the summer from another dimension? Or be able to sing along to Love Patrol Alpha's cover of "Taking Over Midnight"? There's also a song I didn't recognize called "My Heart is Full of Rainbows" that is clearly from Mabel Land, and I'm unironically obsessed with it (if it is actually in there and I just missed it, mea culpa). Anyway, FANTASTIC SONGS and I think I screamed every time a new one came on.

My only sadness is that the album isn't longer, but that's part of being a Gravity Falls fan- you get something perfect and short, but you know it was created that way for a reason. BUT Brad Breeck released the musical suites from each episode of season one on youtube (with some pretty fun animation), so if I'm ever hankering for more I know exactly where to go (here's hoping he releases season two in the future!)

As for the art- it's so SO cool. It's very psychedelic and weirder than the show's style, and that's the point. When I was a little kid, I liked to look at the record soundtracks that my parents had when they were little kids, and the art was SO different from the actual movie/show that the record was for. It was always some unique interpretation from an artist who was allowed to follow their vision, and sometimes the characters were almost unrecognizable, but that was part of the fun. I used to spend forever just looking at that album art, and I hope that if I have kids one day they'll do the same for this. The detail alone is absolutely mind blowing!

OK, enough of my dumb opinions, here are the spoilers:

There are three (technically four) backwards messages on the records. I used a recording app on my phone because my record player doesn't go backwards, and I didn't want to ruin the record or my player:

Side A: Soos says "Playing your record backwards is a great way to damage your record player!" Thanks, dude. Also on Side A is the Lamby Dance, but for some reason it's backwards? Makes it very creepy and I love it.

Side B: When I heard it backwards I thought it was McGucket, but it turns out it's Bill! "Jam your thumbs directly in your eyes for a free fireworks show!"

Side C: There are no backwards messages on this part of the record (THAT I KNOW OF OOoooOOOoooo. I mean, the other three are pretty obvious, so I don't know if one is hidden in the music, but no obvious ones on this side)

Side D: It's Stan telling you "Apparently if you play this record alongside Wizard of Oz, it matches perfectly." (For those of you who don't know, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" album is said to be the perfect soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz)

Physical Spoilers:

The decoder records are so fun, and there are song lyrics specific to each character hidden in the record sleeves so you get to use the vinyl to find them:

Dipper: "Disco Girl, coming through, that girl is you!"

Mabel: "Who's that girl with the pig and the braces, she puts a smile on everyone's faces!"

Stan: "I'm Stan and I was wrong, I'm singing the Stan Wrong Song"

Bill: "Eeny Meeny Miney YOU!" and he's surrounded by the zodiac symbols

All in all, this is super wonderful and I’m so glad i was able to grab this. As someone who got into Gravity Falls only two years ago, it was really cool that there was still something special for me to have that captures the fun and weirdness of this show. Definitely something I’ll treasure for years to come.

Dqg wkdw Vwdq rq wkh vohhyh? Zkdw d ehdvw. 24 ndudw pdjlf lq wkh dlu... ;)

[luxpenumbra]

ugh ohmygod so I saw this post and it made me so mad that I simultaneously wanted to reblog it just to rant in the tags and to not reblog it so that I could avoid sharing it with /more/ people

listen. music is universal. when a singer, songwriter, producer, lyricist, musician, team puts something out into the world, there may be emotions that they are trying to put into it. They will draw on these emotions as they perform and edit and refine this thing they are making. There may be a story they are trying to tell, an experience they are trying to communicate, and this may not be straightforward; there is a level of abstraction between conceptualization and realization that I am convinced exists to some level in all pieces of art like this. This is not a flaw; this is marvellous. When I the listener interact with a song, or an album, or an artist's entire body of work - the emotions that I feel and the story that is conveyed to me may be just. absolutely different from the artist's intentions and their own experience. It may resonate with me in an entirely different way than intended; it may resonate with someone else in a separate, distinct, discrete way. My and others' awareness of the artist and any context they have made clear may play a part in this or it may not; it depends on how I interact with music and how readily available this information is.

All this is to say: the only fucked up thing with this whole gaylor shit is the part where people are convinced that their interpretation of her music and the way it resonates with them indicates some fundamental truth about her identity. The only person who knows that is her and frankly it's none of anyone else's business and it's probably not that interesting anyway. But!!! this does not mean that her music cannot resonate with someone's experience of queerness!!!! It is story and song and a vehicle for emotion, and the details that make something sing true to someone's life and values are not pinned to the artist's "true identity" like a fuckin. butterfly to a corkboard. there is VALUE and DELIGHT in being aware of some additional dimension of queerness by virtue of the singers intentions or identity or whatever but that's a fucking BONUS you NIMRODS the only thing you need is a heart to feel things and a song to feel them about it's about YOU and how you interpret things. you change things just by existing!!! the only person to experience a song the way you do is YOU!!! "if I wanna listen to gay music I'll listen to gay ppl singing about gay sex" good for you!! but what a sad and limited life you must lead to need the significance and meaning of art spoonfed to you by author bios.

AND THEN. fucking condescending ass AAAAAAAH listen. christian rock can slap. i say this as someone who is markedly not christian. and even if you don't think it slaps that's fine. but the fact that someone's out here going "oh poor limited babies who've never listened to real proper good music before projecting sasanaru onto christian rock because they've never known anything else" grow uppppp!!! first of all!!! nobody. NOBODY. is out here saying 10,000 reasons by matt whatever is about sasuke and naruto kissing. you know this in your heart of hearts, just like you know deep down that there is VALUE in eking out meaning in places where you don't expect to find it, and in places that have some connection to the earliest parts of you. (and even if you aren't doing this, aren't interacting with the context of the music and its genre, see above re:universal fucking language). you've probably done it before. it's tumblr, land of transformative works and webweaving of course you have. how limited in scope must you be to think that people who listen to a genre you don't value but who are also queer or something must be just poor deprived children, limited in resource, waiting for that next evolution i'm gonna weep. anyway listen to relient k cowards

[ultramaga]

The shoe goblin.

I have an elderly relative. One day they broke their last shoes and decided they couldn't go shoe shopping without shoes. So they asked me to buy them some shoes.

I went to the shop and got the rellie a pair of shoes exactly the same dimensions as they had before.

They claimed that they were the wrong size. As far as I can tell, they never checked, but maybe they didn't like the colour. Who knows. I kept telling them that all they needed was to get to the shops and then buy nice shoes, so having ugly shoes didn't matter for the whole five minutes you would have to wear them.

But no.

Then they insisted they wanted a particular brand from a chemist.

I last remember seeing those as a child.

I went to the chemist. Chemist said those haven't been around for thirty years. Chemist said they could sell me a different sort, and so long as the rellie kept the receipt and tried them on in a few days, it would be fine.

I called the rellie and conveyed that, made sure I would get my money for them. Yes yes - stop nagging.

Bought the shoes for them to try. They told me they would try them before the next day, as I would have to make another trip and time was running out.

They didn't. Next day. Next day. I kept reminding them. They kept being irritated that I kept reminding them.

Anyway. They had one more day. I asked them where the shoes were. Oh, in their bedroom. Had they tried them on? No, no, plenty of time. I explained no, there wasn't, and where was the receipt?

What receipt?

The one in the bag with the shoes.

There was no bag. There never was a bag. I must be making up a story about a bag.

After much argument, I pointed out that their memory of the shoes began in a different location to where I put them, and that meant there was a gap. Not only that, they conceded to seeing a bag, but they threw it away because it was ugly. It was brown! Why would you keep a brown bag? It was in the way. It didn't belong there.

The relative doesn't like things being in the way. It gets in the way of watching ABC Australia, and yelling that the Orange Man is Bad.

They tried to claim I must have thrown it away. Then they tried to argue that someone else must have thrown it away. At no point did they acknowledge taking the shoes out of the bag, or throwing away the bag.

I gave up and said the goblins must have done it.

This relative keeps passing the legal tests for cognition. I can't make a legal case they have dementia. As far as the law goes, they have the right to take all their stuff, put it in a big pile, and light a match.

But they are utterly exhausting to deal with, and I have other relatives who flat-out refuse now.

I had another relative who was like that. They would go to a cafe, eat the food, throw up, then claim that the cafe had given them rotten food.

The fact that only they were sick, and they were sick every time, and probably would have been made sick by the physical exertion of getting there rather than bacteria, none of that ever stopped them.

They did the same patterns of behaviour for twenty years, and never, ever, accepted any responsibility.

And yes - they, too, watched ABC Australia and believed every Leftist thing that was told to them.

[silvercat-s]

They made Will and Henry's origins way too similar though which could be a writing flaw. Way too many parallels it basically looks like they copypasted Will's story to Henry. Now I'd say the same thing regarding El but at least she is a result of experiments like the other lab kids despite her similarities and similar experiences to Henry. With Will and Henry though, they almost look like the same character. They are both sensitive boys and one day get lost in the woods, end up in the Dimension X/the UD, get affected by it, develop some sort of a connection and powers, on top of that get targeted by the Mind Flayer, get possessed and have a connection to the MF... like sorry but that just sounds ridiculous and extended the parallel aspect atp. They basically coppied Will's entire supernatural origin and story and gave it to Henry. Oh but ok Henry is not gay and has a requited love story so its ok? Like idk it just sounds very weird

I find it hard to have a opinion on whether Henry and will are way too similar without seeing the play myself, even the information that we know about the play right now may change drastically when the play gets it's "final" version

I think the message they are trying to convey by making Will and Henry similar is the whole "love saves" trope, they go through a very similar situation but unlike Henry, will has a support system and people that are willing to fight and do anything for him, while henry just gets tossed to the wolves

Their relationship with the mind flayer is clearly different too, Will is not forced to kill, just spy, Will can only feel the mind flayer and see it's "now memories" while Henry by the time the massacre happens has apparently fully embraced the mf's philosophy and becomes it's "general" while the mf was slowly erasing Will in s2

Anyway, I think it's too soon for us to say they are basically the same character, let's wait for the plays frozen version and for s5, because I'm very sure there will be lots of surprises and twists in it, the play is definitely not the whole story, we are still missing tons of information