#fun with cognitive dissonance

[kahuna-burger]

Not to have some random late night Tony Stark Defense Squad discourse, but I've realized it's easier to let go of some of the more surreally bad takes when I remind myself that most of them really aren't about bashing Tony as much as protecting the basher's fave.

Obviously there are those who for whatever reason just absolutely hate the idea of Iron Man, or Tony Stark, or even RDJ and would find things to complain about if the larger MCU never existed. But imo, the majority of Tony hate comes from people whose faves have done shitty things to him, and in order for the fave to be a Good Guy, Tony has to be bad enough to deserve it.

[abyssaldyke]

It seems like the older I get, the more irrationally angry casual censorship makes me. And it isn't just the "unalive" "grape" alleged filter-dodging vernacular, but the way normal words will be peppered with asterisks, or screenshots will have words like "gay" "hell" "fuck" etc either partially or entirely blurred. Who is this helping? What is the purpose of it, except to reinforce shame and elevate a flimsy perception of purity and safety, however those things manifest. It's so tiresome and I'm sick of it.

[dj-wayback]

at least confetti is easier to clean up than the glitter that was released months ago. hey wayback you should send some glitter to your group it would be very fun and a good new years gift

Sorry.

…

…

…Are you—

Fine. Fu—just—perfect.

…

No, I don’t—what do you mean? So they’ve just decided to play nice with the guy they hate? What the hell?

It is unexpected, yes. And sudden. But not unwelcome.

It’s unwelcome to me. Literally—No Way Back, of all people, the one they can’t stand—they’re just good buddies with him now, I guess! They let him make fun of them. Whatever he did to get on their good side—I can’t possibly be just as capable! Funny how that works! I try and I can’t ever get even a semblance of respect—

…

Ugh.

…You know you don’t have to think of it that way. I consider it a good development. It means things are improving, even if we’re not there to witness it.

…

Sure. Whatever. So happy for Sep and their inspiring journey of self-improvement.

…Perhaps it could be a sign that not all is lost, is what I’m getting at. That one day, you two might grow to understand each other after all?

Understand—

Oh, Weaves.

That’s too hopeful, even for you.

[simcardiac-arrested]

how did you let this happen?

[raayllum]

Depths You Can't See

summary: Callum and Rayla revisit Akiyu's grotto to get answers. An unexpected one leads to deeper intimacy. Otherwise known as, "Rayla finds out Callum tortured Claudia, and then they bang angstily about it: the fic." co-written by me and @thosefiveadoraburrs a/n: set during the 9ish month timeskip between the archdragons' demise and the rayllum bridge scene. listen to this song for maximum effect. Rated: E for explicit / sexual content word count: 3.9k

“You don’t have to come,” were the first words out of Callum’s mouth, once he’d resolved to go back to Akiyu’s grotto.

They’d spent a few months in the Silvergrove just recuperating after everything: Aaravos, the Archdragons, Ezran watching them leave with a frown but without the fury in his eyes. He hadn’t invited them back to Katolis, and they hadn’t asked to stay. The last few days, though, Rayla had sensed the shift in Callum: he’d gone to the Silvergrove library to look into magic.

Moonshadow elves didn’t have much on Ocean magic, but they had something, and given that the Great Bookery had been obliterated, well... they had to start somewhere.

“We need another pearl for when he comes back,” Callum had said when she’d corralled him away from the books and into bed, her room in the Silvergrove now firmly theirs . 

Rayla had run her hands down his shoulders and arms. That was for sure. She couldn’t—she wouldn’t —bring herself to sacrifice him again. “And you think Akiyu’s grotto might have some answers?”

He’d nodded. “I might need a moon opal, but I can cast historia viventem and see what she was working on to make it. Then maybe I can fill in the steps and work on recreating it.” He’d looked at her, his brow creased beneath his new white streak. “You don’t have to come with—”

But she’d leaned over and kissed him. “Where you go, I go, Callum.” 

Now they were here, the beach not yet recovered from whatever violent tantrum Claudia had thrown. Rayla wrinkled her nose as she surveyed the lifeless tidepools. Violence was one thing; unnecessary violence was another, and it seemed like every dark mage became exceedingly prone to doling it out. 

At least the sky was blue, hardly streaked with any clouds. They wouldn’t have to worry about rain on their way out. She’d walked in more rainstorms than she’d ever cared for, during her two years away, shivering under her soaked cloak. The idea of staying in one place for longer than a few weeks was more than tempting after so long on the road, but... Rayla never would have let him return here alone.

[letmesleepwhileiwork]

Cupid

I don't have the energy for backgrounds rn but I hope these are good enough hehe

[gingerswagfreckles]

Well they caught him. If he wasn't the exact kind of person tumblr loves, the conspiracy theories about this being a random person being framed would have continued to spread. But he's an attractive 26 year old white man who was caught carrying a manifesto about corporate America and has an internet history that matches up with tumblr's general politics. So everyone is going to get excited about how he's a martyr and go back to acknowledging reality in that there isn't a conspiracy to frame the wrong guy.

The discussions over whether or not this man should be lionized as a hero are honestly not as relevant as the comfort with which people are going to drop the conspiracy theory they would have been fully committed to if this man's politics turned out to be nuts. The ease with which the userbase of this website switches between realities based on whether or not they confirm their biases is really alarming. I just hope people understand how weird it is to claim a random person is 100% going to be framed by the FBI on one day, and then drop that by the next day when it becomes clear that the person being "framed" is the exact kind of communist you had hoped.

[dandp]

Not people already saying it was meant to be jokey or ironic can we please use our brains and see that it was just acute genuine moment! Dan is Phil Trash #1 after all

Anon don't you know when people make a joke they put absolutely no effort into making the video seem anything but genuine and they put one of the most recognizable love songs as the background music instead of just outright saying the joke, come on

[hsslilly-blog]

it’s funny how a quick google search could’ve solved the issue of claire’s heritage in hollywood u. christopher is out there thinking she was born in a farm or something. addison is 53% sure she’s a shoplifter. ethan thinks she has scammed a lot of men. no one has ever thought of opening google and making the connection between her swanson and those swansons. i mean how could they claire is begging 🙏 for a venmo

[mockiery]

kinda wish in 5b in the Underworld, even with the whole place looking like Storybrooke, that they stuck with the Enchanted Forest style clothes for waaaayyyy more of the souls down there. like imagine Milah in her pirate fit? Cora in a fantastical dress? just loads of fancy dresses and leather and cloaks and shit, just turn out the entirety of the costume department's closet of Enchanted Forest fits onto the streets of color-tinted Storybrooke for funsies. u see the vision.

[la-principessa-nuova]

i just realized that when i mentioned feeling cognitive dissonance about something in college and someone smugly told me i didn’t know what cognitive dissonance was:

I think they were being somewhat narrow-minded and thinking it only counts as cognitive dissonance when the person feeling it was doing something they (the person I was talking to, not the person feeling it) thought was immoral (like more of a word to put people down with when they want to be smug and moralizing than a psychological term)

There was a bit of a double empathy problem going on because I was actually feeling a ton of cognitive dissonance about just about everything I did at the time as a heavily masking, undiagnosed ADHD, undiagnosed Autistic, dangerously sleep-deprived, deeply depressed, egg-in-tact trans girl who thought I was a neurotypical cis guy who was maybe queer in some way but pretending to not realize that and needed to get more sleep but pretending to be awake and present.

[blinkbones]

i didnt really like the last scene of Primal (s2) but thematically it makes perfect sense and i can't be mad at it. Primal, besides being a visual delight of cartoonized gore & character design, is a story about the continuation of life. The second season could not make it more clear, with the emphasis put on the egg-laying scene, managing to imbue the long close-up of a cloaca with a sense of poetic wonder; and even more so, with the darwin episode, in which charles darwin explains primal theory before getting to play action hero. (this episode was honestly so shameless about having fun; it's a gem). This episode being the only one with dialogue that most of the audience would understand, as well as the only one breaking away from the main story, highlights its importance and makes it almost a demonstration of the series as a whole: one that openly chucks historical accuracy to the side to play with the concept of violence as a means of survival. what it doesn't mention, however, is the subsidiary theme of the importance of "family", aka the group one belongs to. It shines through with the main duo, and of course with the subplots of the giant and the vikings. With all this in mind, I can't argue against the thematic coherence and near necessity of the final sex scene--i may not have liked it, but it fits in with the narrative. As the caveman slowly dies from the wounds inflicted by the only being that could beat him (a godlike avenger), mira gazes at his paintings and gets a sense of his loneliness. They have travelled far together and while she may have found her village again, her previous lover is long dead. In many ways, they belong to one another and are "family" already (with the lizards too, of course). It's true that the scene, while quick, does not shy away in a classic fade-to-black--i'd call it off-puttingly intimate--but the series is very adult; it spreads intestines over just about every episode. And most of all, it's not grotesque or ridiculous--it's a tender rekindling of hope, symbolized by the dinosaur-riding daughter in the last images.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

overthinking it

[deiscension]

Calamity Verse: kill my fortune.

(or: the one where the fate swap goes horribly wrong and Wind Master Qingxuan never comes to be)

Some centuries ago, a Middle Court official whiled the day away with laughter and wine. This Middle Court official spent most of their days in such a manner. Unlike their peers, they had no need to toil tirelessly in the gilded shadows of their respective Upper Court officials; they were the infamous Water Tyrant's beloved younger sibling, and they were afforded all the splendor of ascension without having to so much as lift their pinky finger. They did not pine for their own palace in the Upper Court. There was no burning desire to achieve godhood, nor to perform feats that would have storytellers and scholars alike immortalizing their name in legend. They were all too happy to remain the bellwether of the Middle Courts.

Perhaps it was this contentment with mediocrity that made the heavens spit them out like a bit of unpalatable gristle. How dare this lowly mortal originally destined for an end poorly met squander such a coveted opportunity!

As the Middle Court official lounged and drank, they heard disquiet break out among the people beneath them. Some bully or another had come along to cause trouble. With a wry smirk, they tipped their overflowing cup. Wine spilled atop the troublemaker's head and the heavens split open. A flash of light, and the agreeable early summer breeze began to wail. Their gaze lifted towards that rend in the sky, and they screamed in such a way nobody could tell the difference between the howling winds and their petrified cries.

Their wretched fate had found them at long last, and it came for them with teeth glistening in the lather of a starved beast. Never before had they run so fast in their entire life. But when had running ever worked? That terrible beast, The Reverend of Empty Words, was an opportunistic predator. Once they were out of breath and on the verge of collapse, it struck.

Some say it sucked the breath right out of their lungs right then and there. Others say it chased them day and night, always a few steps behind them, feeding off their unabating terror until they could physically no longer move. Nobody really knows how it happened. But they died crying for help, for mercy. A cry the heavens did not listen to. This is known for certain.

For most, that is where the story ends. Let this serve as a cautionary tale never to squander your fortune, no matter how great or small it may be.

For the Ghost King known as Ever-Dancing Turquoise Tempest, this is where the story begins.

In those final moments as a Middle Court official, they saw everything that should have been theirs. As they were torn to shreds by the Reverend, they vowed to never rest in peace until they captured fate and pried every good thing it had stolen from them and countless other unfortunate souls from its greedy jaws.

Or (tl;dr):

The fate swap doesn't work as intended and rebounds onto Qingxuan instead, leading the Reverend right back to them. In their final moments, the botched spell showed them glimpses of the fate they could have had as the Wind Master.

Not knowing the fate they saw play out was to be a stolen one, they cling to the desperate, ill-informed hope that there is still a chance they could have everything promised to them. That hope was what tied them to the world as a ghost flame. But as time passed and their naive perception of the world was challenged time and time again, their hope festered into hunger and hysteria. Their conviction was no longer a simplistic drive to rediscover the fate they believed rightfully theirs. They wanted to know what made fate so fickle, why it turned its back on them and not their brother, what it would mean to transcend it, to become strong enough to be kinder than fate. That is what ultimately led them to the Kiln.

Much fitting of their name, this Ghost King is a tempest of jealousy, mania, fragile ego, and sincerely heartfelt but ultimately misled, muddied good intentions. They're still as magnanimous and soft-hearted as ever, but these qualities are overwrought with overindulgence and fierce possessiveness. They're also capricious, vain, and deceptive-- though this deception ranges from playing harmless tricks to swindling others out of house and home. She has a tendency to find other mortals (and sometimes ghosts) with rotten fates and unfortunate lives and tries to coax them into letting her find their fortunes for them, or at least grant them favors that are beyond the heavens. She does have good enough intentions in doing this… but it typically ends in either disaster or untraceable disappearances.

Some fun facts:

They will introduce themself as Ruixuan. They keep the fact they are The Water Master's younger sibling under lock and key. Whether anybody has ever discovered their true name is anyone's best guess. Do they keep their identity a secret out of a filial desire to keep their older brother's name from being tarnished by their reputation? Or is there some other motivation for hiding who they are? (For clarity's sake, I will still refer to them as Qingxuan).

Though they have a strong affinity for the wind, they do not directly control the wind. Their spiritual power is rooted in breath (or in some cases, lack thereof). A single puff from their lips could cause a tempest, laughter capable of destroying harbors with a sudden typhoon. Not that they would do so just because. They're not that much of a brute. Oh, but they do have quite a temper. If you do anything to upset their good humors, you're likely to find yourself hurled halfway across the countryside before you've even blinked.

Appears in a variety of forms. Their preferred appearance is that of a young woman with clear eyes and rosy lips; not only do they feel as beautiful and at home in their own skin as they always wanted to feel in this form, it also helps with lowering guards and loosening tongues. Their second favorite form is more visibly androgynous with darker hair and taller stature. All other forms are taken only on a whim. As for their true form... nobody knows. Maybe even they've forgotten.

No set territory in the sense of how HC has Ghost City; their domain is more liminal. Those thin spaces between wilderness and civilization, water and shoreline, mountaintop and sky (or whatever establishment they've decided they'll spend the night drinking themselves under the table). In short, they linger where the wind lingers.

They delight in being a menace and goading others into reactions. The more explosive the better. Is it because they're a natural born attention seeker who sorely misses being an overly-attached younger sibling or because they want everything they can't have? Or are they just a brat? Who knows!

Their attitude towards Heavenly Officials is... complicated. There are rumors that the Lady Tempest purposefully targets Heavenly Officials when in her more treacherous moods, specifically those who have the largest spread of wealth and means to their names. Of course, there's no way to prove that.

As mentioned before, they're known to be a trickster among mortals and gods alike. The severity of her wily ways depends entirely on who you ask. To some she's 'a scheming skank who will swindle you out of your own fate for no other reason than she feels like it'. To others she's 'nothing more than a girl who likes to giggle at the way you jump when she blows cold air against the back of your neck'.

As of late, they have grown rather restless, and that is truly saying something given how active they already are. Their gaze has started to turn heavenward more often. If they could only return, then maybe they could finally understand why... maybe they could understand how to make it all work the way it should...

[icterid-rubus]

Held my classmate’s hand today and he kissed me!

[visenyaism]

prompted by your awesome Macbeth answer, what are your thoughts on King Lear? 👀

In his opening monologue, edmund compares bastardy to astrology in that they are both completely made up systems that men use to judge the character of someone absolutely and totally without even meeting them first, which as a bastard and someone born under ursa major (gemini-ish) himself he especially resents. He sees himself as a full and complete person superior and more worthy of esteem than many of his legitimate peers, but people assign “baseness” to his character because of his bastardy which he himself points out is barely-defined. However, the second half of that monologue is about his plans to do away with and replace his narrative double, his legitimate brother Edgar, through an elaborate web of trickery and deceit, which is some of the most gemini shit i’ve ever heard. This is a metaphor for the inescapability of getting assigned such a label- as hard as he tries to fight it, it’s immutable because it is how he is introduced to other characters (the whoreson must be acknowledged) and to the audience.