#book or movie version

[georgi-girl]

Babble: Track Four

Rated T for swearing. 

Back woods legit,

Don’t take no shit,

Chew tobacco 

Chew tobacco

Chew tobacco 

SPIT! 

After a while, Chief Brady started pressuring Miguel to start practicing with the lyre. Whenever he touched it however, he felt an uncomfortable shock in his fingertips. He sat on his bed, staring at it. Riley paced in circles on the floor. 

“Want me to try using it?” she asked him. 

“I... don’t think you need to. I think if I wear gloves, I’ll be fine.”

They heard a plick plick sound. They looked around and saw the screws unwinding from the air-vent grill. The entire thing fell to the floor. Out popped Zodiac’s face, smiling at them. Both teens freaked out. 

“Dios Mio!” Miguel screamed in his native Spanish. 

“HOWAREYOUDOINGTHAT??” Riley screamed as well. Zodiac shushed them both as they slithered out of the vent and landed on the floor. “Took us a while, but we figured out where to find you.” 

Riley sat down panting. “I, I, I thought that crawling through the vent thing was a myth, that you couldn’t do it in real life.” 

“Not everyone can.” Zodiac stretched their arms and legs. “But we can. It helps that we’re good at contortion and don’t have claustrophobia.” 

“Anyway,” they clapped their hands together. “We found the room where they keep the security tapes. What say we watch them together?” 

“But...” Miguel gestured around, “What about us showing up on tape?” 

“Not to worry.” Zodiac looked over at Miguels’ camera. “We have a spell for that.” 

@@@@ 

The first tape they watched was from New Year’s. It showed everyone in the common room after the daily playing. Gristle walked up to Chief and looked at the lyre. 

“What happens if you pluck the strings one at a time?” he asked.

“Let’s find out.” She plucked the red string. Renee shuddered and sighed. Her whole body glowed bright red. She became taller, sharper, scruffy, becoming a mauve-skinned woman dressed in fishnets and a white tank top. Everyone heard an electric guitar in their heads. The strange, mohawked woman turned to Gristle, red-eyed and snarling. “BERGEN MAN WHORE!!!!!” She screamed and ran towards him. He tried to run away, but she grabbed him by the neck. Before she could do anything to him, she shuddered wildly. Chief Brady had actually tased her! The woman collapsed on the ground, shifting back into an unconscious Renee.

Miguel and Riley were stunned by what they saw, unable to form words. Zodiac rubbed their chin like an intrigued scientist. 

“That’s fascinating.” 

“Was that a troll?” Riley asked. 

“She turned into a troll?” Miguel asked. 

“Yes. Wait No!” Zodiac gave several answers at once. “She didn’t look like a troll. Unless! Access to our plane allowed access to take on human form… Fascinating.”

@@@@ 

The next day at the afternoon gathering, Miguel experimented by plucking the orange string. The whole harp turned orange, and so did Loop. In the place where Loop sat, there sat a long-haired orange skinned woman with legs ending in giant horse hooves. She got up and stomped to the nearest patient. “How’d you like to be someone’s dinner?” She grabbed him by the ear. “How’d you like to be MY dinner!?” 

She managed to grab a dinner knife and pin him down. “Yippie-Ki-yay, Father Fracker.” She aimed the knifepoint at his eyeball. 

Riley saw Chief Brady pull out her taser. Remembering what happened to the red girl, she launched herself at the woman, tackling her to the ground before she or Chief could do anything.

They lay there, staring at each other.

“Hello,” Riley smiled, “Miss Orange Troll Woman…”

“Do something!”  The scared patient yelled at Miguel.

Miguel strummed all the strings at once. The woman shivered and shifted back into Renee. Riley was laying on Renee. Awkward. She rolled off of her. 

“What was that all about?” Miguel asked Bridget.

Bridget looked down, nervous. “It’s um, it’s… it’s kinda complicated.”

@@@@

That night they went through the older tapes. Miguel admitted something to Zodiac.

“My boyfriend got a job here, back in October. At first there was radio silence. Then he started sending me all these texts, saying that he was possessed by animal spirits, and that people were trying to turn him into a Super. Right before we came to work here, he sent me long conspiracy letter, talking about how he escaped and how he was waiting for me to escape.” Miguel sighed deeply. “I hoped it wasn’t true, but now....”  

Zodiac put an arm around him. Up close, Miguel noticed a tattoo of the big dipper on their forehead. 

@@@@

In the woods, miles away from the facility, an 18-year-old Korean man turned on a camera and filmed himself.

“Hello party people! This is Day 28 on the Lam. I’m Species. Formally known as Russel JIn. Let me take you around camp.” He pointed the camera at different spots. “Here’s our tent. Here’s the latrine (we dig a new one every week). Here’s the campfire. Here’s the spot where I prepare the food. Here’s the rock where we eat. And here’s Senior Dante!” The camera stopped on a Xolo dog bundled up in colorful Christmas sweaters. “He’s been keeping us company, courtesy of Miguel, our ally in the inside.”

He turned the camera back to himself, showing all his beefy Korean glory. “We have an ally on the outside too. But he doesn’t show up on camera. Just as well. He’s on a secret mission. We’re just along for the ride.”

He looked over at the white haired, blue eyed, barefoot boy standing next to Dante. “Thanks again for getting this for us. And for all the other stuff.”

“Don’t mention it.” Jack gave a wave of his frost-covered staff.

@@@@

The next day, Riley sat with Zodiac in their room. Zodiac reviewed the facts; “So, strumming all the strings together brings out the Trolls’ emotions. Plucking them one at a time summons a particular species. Imagine what playing an actual song would do…”

“Maybe a little Mariachi can perk them up.” Riley suggested. “Miguel can play one of his songs for them and they could…”

“Oh not that!” Zodiac interrupted her with great enthusiasm.

“Why? You said trolls love music.”

“Yeah, the music they make. They hate other people’s music.”

“Really? That’s kind of racist.” 

“It’s... complicated.”

@@@@

While Zodiac explained the String’s history to Riley, Gristle admitted the truth about Trolls and Bergens to Miguel. 

“You ATE THEM????” He roared at the little man. 

“We didn’t think they minded! We thought they were just happy all the time!” 

“If that were the case, they wouldn’t have tried to run away from you!” 

“Yeah! I can see that now!” 

“But you still need to play each day!” An old skinny man named Bibly piped up. “Otherwise, the troll spirits will awaken and come to the surface!” 

Miguel paced back and forth, muttering in Spanish. Finally, he turned back to the crowd.

“I hope they DO surface! And I hope they tear you jerkwads limb from limb!” 

@@@@ 

“So, after fighting with the other elders, the Pop leader took the entire harp, strings and all, and hoarded its’ music. The others eventually stole their strings back and left with their tribes in all different directions.” 

 “And what happened to the Pop Trolls?” Riley asked.

“They chose a new leader and swore off using their string altogether. Even when things started to go wrong for them.”

“What were they even fighting about?” Riley asked. 

“No one knows.” Zodiac examined their hand. Riley hadn’t noticed before, but they had an extra finger. “Must have been something important.” 

That’s when Miguel came in. 

“You won’t believe what just learned!” The teenagers said to each other in unison. Zodiac laughed hysterically. 

@@@@

They spent the rest of the night exchanging stories. The next morning, Miguel took his guitar and sat in the middle of the cafeteria.

“I don’t care what happens, I’m playing something!”  

He began strumming a gentle ballad. Everyone looked at him. 

He’s pretty good. Bridget thought to herself. 

On the other side of the room, Renee blinked, like someone waking from a dream. She looked at Miguel and began to walk towards him. Riley was the first to notice her. 

She stood right in front of Miguel, smiling at him.

“That’sss... prrettyyy...”

[idontcarecarebear]

I love comparing book Thorin and to movie Thorin especially when they first meet Bilbo and book Thorin lands flat on his face being crushed by Bifur, Bofur and Bombur, pulls out a beautiful harp that he’s been carrying the whole time to the shire and even after they leave the shire, gives compliments to Bilbo about being a generous host and talks about the hair on his feet and movie Thorin just saunters in looking like a sexy mysterious man in the night ready to whisk away poor Bilbo but his brain wasn’t working quick enough to keep up with the charade and insults Bilbo instead.

And I love both of them and would love it if they both met and thought the other version was a complete moron.

[jackklinemybeloved]

[…]

Percy’s warning to fellow half-bloods in the audience, across different mediums.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (2005) The Lighting Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical (2017) Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series Teaser (2023)

[yrsonpurpose]

He’s in stupid, unbearable love, and Henry loves him too.

[afaramir]

when boromir died for merry and pippin and then pippin saves faramir's life. when pippin says i offer you my service in payment for this debt. when he offers it to denethor but really it's to gondor and to boromir and to the man that denethor once was. when boromir saving pippin's life directly means that pippin saves faramir's life and literally...to boromir, that would've been enough, to have his brother live. for gondor that is enough, to have their captain returned to them.

[bixels]

I'm not getting into The Giving Tree discourse...

[the-gay-prometheus]

Ok wait- on the Flatland note regarding Bill's origin story-

Everyone is out here trying to figure out what exactly makes Bill's eye weird. Like. How can he see into the third dimension while the others can't? What makes it weird other than seeing into the third dimension? Do the others in his dimension have two eyes - but how would that make it so they can't see the third dimension? Do they have no eyes at all (definitely not, cuz apparently they have evil optometrists)?

I'm about to (probably not) blow everyone's freakin minds.

Here's a poster for the Flatland movie:

What do you notice about them? Anything interesting? Perhaps something about their eye(s)?

Their eye(s) are located on one side of their face. They can only see forward, or, if they turn around, backward. And that's because, well, it's the 2nd dimension - there are is only left or right, forward or backward. I repeat - they can only see forward.

Now let's look at our beloved (beloathed, and everything in between) triangle demon:

Notice anything about his eye? Anything different? Anything... Weird? Strange?

It's in the middle of his face. Which poses an interesting issue in a 2nd dimensional world... Sure he can look left and right, but what is his default?

His default, if he is on a two dimensional plane, is to look up. "Up" is not a concept in the second dimension. There is no "up" because "up" implies depth - and depth is 3rd dimension, not 2nd.

He doesn't have any special powers that allow him to see into the 3rd dimension - I mean, obviously he has lots of special powers but... They aren't what inherently allow him to see into the 3rd dimension. It's the placement of his eye. The placement is his "defect," not the eye itself. He sees into the 3rd dimension because he has no choice. His default always was to see something that no one else in his world could see - the sky, the stars, and whatever else lay above.

The reason they tried to chemically blind him was because there was no other way to make it so he couldn't see into the third dimension. They probably thought it was a mercy - the poor kid was stuck with the default of always seeing of something that no one else in his world could ever physically see.

[077891st]

What secrets could this book hold?

----

Saw Sniff's handmade (!!!) Lexica Botania and this image engraved itself onto my eyelids then my internet died lmao

[just--the--two--of--us]

[cockworkangels]

tried out painting my favourite little guy :)

[igelmanz]

They’re so important to me

[suja-janee]

Honestly I’m not surprised the “hair down” option won for my young Lord Shen poll.

I don’t even know why I bothered putting up to vote in the first place 😂

[matt-murdick]

I am begging people to please stop using modern texts as evidence for your interpretations of mythological characters.

All modern works are basically fanfic. Do not base your understanding of the actual people from Song of Achilles, or Epic, or Percy Jackson, or Circe, or literally any book or play written in the past few hundred years. You are not discussing the person from mythology, you are discussing a contemporary character based on them. It is not the same thing.

[cologona]

Bruce didn’t mean to slice Jason’s throat and if he did mean it, it was only to disable , it wasn’t lethal and the wound would’ve been treated, and though that didn’t happen it wasn’t Bruce who sealed Jason’s fate but Joker who set off the explosion, and anyways Jason didn’t actually die he comes back in other comics.

Except none of that matters. It matters for the validity of UTRH as a Batman story that Bruce has deniability sure, but does it absolve him? UTRH says No. At the end of the day Bruce would rather attack his son than let his murderer die. Bruce thought he was refusing the choice but the lesson of this tragedy is that refusing to pick one over the other boils down to choosing the other.

[svnflowermoon]

"and you kissed me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever" is so first prince coded

[cali]

atlantis type beast, lugia type beat