#feverdreamsandlucidnightmares

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

Critically important WW discussion

[graham--folger]

Did you start reading Come and See???? You started posting art of it and I need to know 🙏🏻

i did!!! i can’t remember what chapter im on but vash is in cat form rn,, such a good fic oh my god

[i-wish-this-was-a-fever-dream]

Izuku: *drinking coffee with an extra espresso shot* my eyes are so dilated I look like a cat with Zoomies

Izuku, a few minutes later: I *feel* like a cat with Zoomies

Hitoshi: *watching with palpable concern and curiosity*

[batfam-chaos]

Hi! I was listening to the birds fly playlist and I really love your story. I don’t know if you’ve heard it, but I think Astronaut by Simple Plan really fits how you write Tim✨

i’m listening to it right now and WOW that song fits really, really well!!!!!!!! holy fuck. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

thank you so much for recommending this song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i’m over here mcfucking losing it over this song omfg

[teb-gingerdanger]

rules: answer 8 prompts with 8 songs, then tag 8 people!

tagged by the ever lovely @glitterfreckly <3

1. your favorite song at the moment

‘Paint It Black’ by Hidden Citizens has played on loop in my head for weeks now. The lyrics are about mourning & grief, but this cover makes it dramatic & sinister, like trying to make the whole world feel the same...

2. a song you associate with a favorite character or ship

‘Killer in the Mirror’ by Set It Off. A few of you might recognize this already bc I put it as the first song in my Perpetual playlist as well. As such, it makes me think of ‘Zuko Alone’ and ‘Jet’ so very much still. And as much as the lyrics are about being alone & mistrust, the video has a different turn of finding others who are like you, and reemerging as the victor after all. 

3. a song that could be about you

ooh, this is gonna be a personal one maybe but... ‘Change’ by NF. First time I heard it was soon after this entire album first came out. ‘The Search’ is another great one, but it was more specific to NF, while ‘Change’ has a broader feel. The lyrics say enough.

4. a song you think is overrated

‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin Thicke. No link, it doesn’t deserve any more attention. It got the downfall it deserved a while back, but I still dislike that it got popular at all. It has an awful msg embedded in a catchy tune. 

5. a good song that reminds you of a specific memory

‘Breathe’ by ZABO. This is one I first heard from my lil sis in her old apartment while she was packing to move, but the more specific memory that it gives me now is our recent road trip together. It came on over the speakers, and without any discussion beforehand or during, she and I are breathing together in time to the song, and then simultaneously bobbing our heads to the beat. So I’m driving, she’s in the passenger seat, and the mountain view is around us through the windows as this song plays.

6. the last song you listened to

if we want to be very technical, it’s ‘Breathe’ as above, bc I’m listening to & linking the songs as I get through this list. If we’re talking about pre-list, then I sought out ‘2 Phút Hơn (KAIZ Remix)’ by Phao earlier today. Another song that came from spending time around my lil sis, and it’s a bop~

7. a song that makes you laugh

‘YAS’ by Todrick Hall. The ending where he switches up the style of the song twice made me laugh out loud the first time I heard it, and still puts a smile on my face when the song comes on again. It just feels good to be petty sometimes and this song embodies that. 

8. a song you want your mutuals to listen to

besides all of the above? hard choice... but I’ll have to go with ‘Shark Attack’ by Grouplove. It is near nonsensical nonsense but it is such fun. It’s a song that gives me such carefree positive energy that, although the girl who introduced it to me hurt me in a bad way, the song evokes stronger emotions in me than she did, and ‘Shark Attack’ remains one of my favorites. 

tagging: with no obligation @skybson @feverdreamsandlucidnightmares @madseason @foiblepnoteworthy @portraitoftheoddity @whimpy2626 @feralhobbit @unproductive-college-student 

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

Nicholas D. Wolfwood is just The Guy to me lmao like he’s got eldest daughter syndrome/trauma, he’s got religious trauma, he has authority issues, he has medical trauma, he’s gonna get in a fight, he’s introduced getting hit by a car, he’s hyper competent, he’s the most girlfailure, he’s been permanently exhausted his whole fucking life but especially since he was like 12, he experienced rapid personal growth bc a sweet, pretty guy was nice to him and believed in him, he’s good with kids but he’s never going to have any, he cares about so many people and would take that as direct slander, he believes violence can definitely be an answer, he chain smokes, he thinks he’s edgy and cool, he’s doomed by the narrative and he knows it — like there are so many ways for so many people to project wildly onto him and it’s so fun

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

I don’t have the braincells or the words for this rn but something about Vash’s epithet being “the Stampede” something about stampedes being characterized as a destructive force born out of running away from danger, an action born of panic not malice something about all of the people after him still somehow thinking he wants to fight something about how he runs away to keep others safe not himself something about Vash being willing to take hits for anyone even his enemies something about good intentions getting you nowhere something about grace to the wrong people causing even more harm something about taking all the blame something somethiNG

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

I think the Vashwood dynamic where Wolfwood thinks about how he’s going to hell every time he thinks about how pretty Vash is (often, relatable) is super funny bc 1.) can’t believe catholic guilt survived the fall of mankind and 2.) if you do believe in hell, the fact that you’ve killed a lot of people is enough to get you there. Thinking about kissing a boy like a pining high schooler should not even register as a concern.

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

I’m thinking about tiny baby Wolfwood growing up in a church-affiliated orphanage. Do you think he grew up saying his prayers before bed every night? Even if it’s just an appeasement to his caretakers, do you think he got into the habit of doing it?

Then, when he was taken by the EoM and experimented on and trained and kept in a cell, did he stop? Did they call him a child of blessing, too? As they remade him? Who do you pray to when it is god’s good and faithful servants hurting you? When you meet what claims to be divine and he condemns you? How could this hell be anything but divine providence?

What god do you pray to when yours plays an active role in your suffering?

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

I’m thinking about Arcane again and tbh if I was as smart as Viktor I would also do unethical scientific experimentation on myself on the off chance that it made my body work at least a little better and mitigated (or even just changed!!) some of my pain. And like he was fully dying, so there are basically no consequences — shit’s fucked either way. Like, oh no I either die slowly of natural causes, quickly of deeply unnatural causes, OR it fixes something. Real as hell of him imo.

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

I keep thinking about moral vs ethical authorities and actions in the Trigun animes. I hope this ramble about it makes sense.

I think most of us will agree that morality is perfectly capable of secular development and is unbeholden to religion in general, though religions can certainly serve as a moral authority and inform specifics. But they are not, or at least not the only, source of morals.

And while ethics and morals are often used as synonyms, they do actually have different meanings. The short version is that ethics are the rules and standards of a social system/culture/etc and morals determine what a person individually thinks is wrong or right. Often, people’s morals and ethics follow the same principles and authorities. They don’t have to, though.

Functionally, let’s say that ethical choices are social goods, and thus social authorities are the ethical authorities within a given society or culture. Much like laws and power structures are meant to protect and benefit the people they govern, a social or common good is something that benefits the largest number of people within a society. In Trigun, these authorities include the Bernardelli Insurance Society (in a limited capacity), the JuLai/July military police, the Eye of Michael, and (notably, but discretely) Millions Knives.

There’s plenty of speculation on and textual implication within Trigun Stampede that Knives and Conrad having their hands in a lot of JuLai’s governance and polices. This is where the moral value of the ethical systems in place becomes questionable.

There are a lot of implications to unpack within an ethical system potentially developed and controlled by a genocidal semi-immortal being using it as a shadow government. The abridged, most important point is that there is no reason for Knives to be a part of a system that allows humans to flourish, build community, and grow. There is every reason for him to convince/allow everyone to think that he is.

A social good is one with the support of those in authority. It has no innate moral value. Laws and orders from unjust governments do not absolve anyone of the weight of their actions. But they determine who is punished.

So, the Eye. The church of No Man’s Land. A social authority for people in Hopeland, at least to some extent. Enough so that the orphanage cannot stop the Eye from taking its children. And Windmill Village to a much larger extent. So much so that its people volunteer their children as sacrifices. And it’s implied to have a much wider reach than just that. The Eye of Michael is a cult that preys upon the planet’s most desperate. Rollo - sick and poor and unlucky. Blessed. Made new, made whole (everything down to his emotions tampered with). Monev the Gale. Wolfwood and Livio - orphans and poor. Wolfwood, the handpicked Child of Blessing. The perfect candidate to be a child soldier. Nicholas the Punisher. Livio, the volunteer. The good and faithful brother follower. Livio the Double Fang. The other Gung-Ho-Guns. Dominique the Cyclops, Midvalley the Hornfreak, Rai-Dei the Blade, E. G. Mine, Leonof the Puppet-Master, Hoppered the Gauntlet, Caine the Longshot — volunteers? Desperate people doing desperate things? Or violent people playing at divine intervention? Social authorities in their own right, in the sense that they can do what they want without repercussions from the masses. They answer to Legato, to Knives, not to the traditional governments of No Man’s Land.

And Legato has been desperate. He would kill almost anyone before suffering that again. He would die to escape it, too. Life holds so little meaning to him. The end is near and he is both hierophant and harbinger. He lays no claim to justice, only ruin, but it’s all in Knives’ name.

Knives, who plays god. Who puts a bounty on his brother’s head to drive him back to him. All that power, he gets to determine what is wrong or right and people can either agree or die. It’s easy to see where his morals fail, but there isn’t a higher power to enact justice. So, he has the authority, what goods does he perform with it?

It’s also important to note that Zazie does not perform moral or social goods. Zazie serves themself, for their own betterment. And this is not a moral failing because applying human morals to a multi-consciousness conglomerated hivemind controlled collective of bugs can’t make sense. Zazie is all of the wams on No Man’s Land. All of their collective experiences in the species’ existence. All of their lives, all of their loss. It’s all Zazie. And Zazie believes that the needs of the many (themself in all their facets) outweigh the needs of the interlocutor few (humanity, Plants). Tentatively willing to coexist and adapt, unwilling to accept their own destruction. Allies or enemies. They work with Knives until it no longer benefits them. Very utilitarian.

Nonetheless, the Eye of Michael and its chosen crusaders, its sychophants, its priests are a definitive social and tentative moral authority within No Man’s Land. So, who can tell Conrad that he is performing anything other than a social good by doing his experiments? He claims he’s trying to save humanity and the only authority over him wants humanity dead. A flawed system. The Gung-Ho-Guns perform social goods by killing whoever they are sent to exterminate. This, of course, includes Vash without regard to whoever might be caught in the crossfire. Vash, who unwittingly takes the blame for his brother over and over. Vash, who has a bounty placed on his head by his brother and his misguided puppet government. Vash, who is being mocked and chided, his bounty the same as the cost of a new Plant. Vash, the Humanoid Typhoon, legally an act of God, the first “human” natural disaster. Destruction in his wake.

Wolfwood performs a social good by betraying Vash. He has the authority to justify his actions through his ordainment.

And Wolfwood performs a moral good by saving Meryl. It’s the first unilaterally moral good he performs in Trigun Stampede. That’s important. The thing about Wolfwood is that he knows the difference between moral and social goods. He knows whatever values he’d like to act on don’t align with his orders, but there’s always other lives at stake. Wolfwood doesn’t kill because he’s particularly bloodthirsty. He’s pragmatic. Other people have to die to keep the orphanage safe. An unfortunate, but necessary cost that he’s willing to pay. Until he isn’t anymore. Monsters don’t need morals, but if Vash can afford them maybe he can, too.

And normal, everyday people perform social goods, too, by trying to stop bank robbers and bandits and the Nebraska Family. And Vash. Those are ethical decisions, stopping criminals threatening your home is ethical. You just have to remember who determines who the criminals are and why.

Your moral and ethical authorities, ideally, should be in alignment. This is not a utopia, so they aren’t. And these random people living on the planet he forced them onto are continuously subjected to the so-called social good of Knives enacting his divine plan in order to force Vash’s hand. They are a necessary sacrifice for his greater good. The greater good that is Knives’ Eden, that is a world remade in his image. Vash remade in his image.

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

I love genderbent art of trigun characters bc you almost never need to change their outfits. Like I guess you could give genderbent Meryl real pants if you wanted to but Vash? Wolfwood? Milly? Same exact outfits as canon, I don’t give a shit. Like I’d give Vash long hair, but that’s solely bc I miss when he did have long hair not bc I think he would need it to look “feminine”.

Also, while Tri98 Wolfwood puts some effort into his appearance and looks good, Tristamp Wolfwood is doing the opposite of thriving. Genderbent Tristamp Wolfwood has to have girlfailure vibes. I would argue that he already does, but that’s not the point.

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

Okay, I’m curious:

Feel free to explain in the tags/replies/reblogs if it varies

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

Im briefly emerging from my trigun obsession to tell you that seeing nerd x jock AUs for bakudeku is deeply funny to me because, first of all, they are both nerds and jocks. Its like the AP kids who also do varsity sports. They’re batshit feral gremlin children with inferiority complexes. Secondly, how do you pick which one is the jock and which one is the nerd for the AU?? Because I see jock!Bakugou and nerd!Midoriya way more often and I think we’re collectively missing out on the comedic potential of it being the other way around. I can think of several instances of Bakugou canonically running study groups and shit, but also Midoriya has canonically worked out more than even All Might wants him to and can move at least 650lbs even before starting at UA. He pulled All Might (560lbs) on top of a fridge (100-400lbs) on a beACH. And finally, I’m sorry if the height difference throws off your usual jock x nerd flirting dynamics but just make Midoriya a gremlin to counteract it, it’ll be funny.

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

It’s the Themes, but it’s been pointed out to me that I didn’t include enough options and that some of my options were vague/confusing. I also fucked up my own soup and hit the wrong option trying to get my screen to refresh. Thank you to the 121 participants in the original poll thus far. Y’all scare me a little bc it’s only been up a couple hours but I appreciate it. Sorry about the mishaps and don’t feel obligated to participate in the re-do, but I will of course be eternally grateful if you do want to (for science! 👀)

Im also increasing the time to a week!

* Aspec includes the ace spectrum, the aro spectrum, and any combination or variation of the two. Picking the "Aspec" option means that one or more aspec identities are part of your overall identity, but you can have other queer identities in addition to that.

The "Both" option is intended to be for anyone who has an aspec identity (as explained above) and is also disabled.

The "Otherwise Queer" option is intended to be for anyone who is a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, but not on the ace or aro spectrums at all.

I struggled with wording on this and Im sorry its slightly confusing. Go with whatever option resonates best for you and if you have any questions feel free to ask! I stay on Tumblr a ridiculous amount and will respond to you within a day if not a few hours. I want this to be fun, not stressful, so Im happy to help or talk as needed! Feedback is completely welcome /srs

EDITED for clarity on meaning of poll options 3/2/24

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

Is it a hot take to say that if you are with your friend or family member or whatever and they are wearing a mask because they or someone in their life is immunocompromised and you aren’t wearing a mask bc you just don’t feel like it you are being rude as hell? Like I think you should be wearing a mask in general, but I know lots of people disagree. But dude, not even for someone you care about?