#i *try* but more often i *fail*

[stars-obsession-pit]

Putting a spin on the JL not helping

Amity Park called the Justice League for help early on in the ghost attacks.

They failed to help.

But it wasn’t out of ignorance or neglect. They genuinely did try to help—or at least to try to investigate the situation.

Something stopped them.

They physically couldn’t enter Amity Park. Even with the JL Dark trying, some effect got in the way.

The most they could do was offer advice.

And, well, the only hero they knew in the area was Red Huntress. They knew of Phantom, of course—they were paying attention—but he was a vigilante at best, maligned heavily by the news. Why would they send him things?

[kr-yoongi]

Merlin, from every episode | Season 1 Episode 1 “The Dragon’s Call”

(Timelapse below)

[starbiology]

my fav with every power imaginable whos defeated instantly every time

[silverskye13]

I need to ask, though:

*How* long has he been in the water?

The earliest "he is surely in the water now" mention I can see is Etho stepping backwards after the splash - he's stepping through the water that's why it's hard. The Bdubs hug feels like "not yet" cause Etho shouldn't be up to his shoulders then - but it might be the starting to lead in point, 'm unsure? And the singing moment might indicate the start of charming?

Honestly, I love everything about this. I love everything about every your text, the way you manipulate details and atmosphere. When I'm trying to remember my first read, it's. A lot of suspence. I know something will come, it might be Bdubs - it surely is Bdubs, and I expect him to catch Etho unaware. The murder talk, the danger that I anticipate - it's not there yet, but I'm waiting for it, and the tune, the hug, the splash, the buckle - all of them feel like fakeouts to keep the pressure. And the bells are ringing, the hints are all there, but they're so carefully weaved into everything else they might be just words.

And then the question sounds, and the horror hits.

With frantic scrolling up, re-reading, getting even more terrified, and begging for Etho to do something.

It's high mastery, imo.

Oh man, thank you so much for the kind words :D I'm glad you liked the fic, and that the suspense/horror came together so well! I don't write straight horror too terribly often? And I was trying to really stretch some muscles with this one, to see what I could do.

For when exactly Etho gets in the water: I didn't really define that for myself. I wanted him in the water to happen in the space between cues in the story. But I can talk about the things that happen around that.

When Etho sees the stone on the still water, he is getting his first glimpse of the creature. Something is watching him from across the unnatural stillness of the river. When he thinks to himself, "I'm on the dock and I'm safe," the siren song has started and he's been charmed. Up until this point, he's shown some amount of caution [walking quietly on the dock, making sure he isn't wearing anything heavy besides his sword, prioritizing what activities he does first] but when he suddenly and overtly drops caution for "I'm safe on the dock", he's being lied to by something else. And, after emphasizing that nothing can drag him into the water against his will, he reaches over the side of the dock and touches the water willingly.

The rest of the story after that is, to me, the siren justifying sounds and sensations that would break the spell. Etho hears himself shuffling on the dock -- that's just BDubs walking up behind him, nothing to worry about. Etho feels a sense of danger and unease -- well, BDubs is talking about killing Grian. Etho hears the creature moving towards him in the water -- BDubs has his legs over the side of the dock and is kicking around. BDub's eyes are the wrong color -- well, the sunset is reflecting off them, making them red.

Somewhere in these cues, Etho starts shivering, because the water is cold, and he's standing in it.

I also tried to weave in a little bit, the idea that Etho knows he's being charmed? Mostly to do with the end, when he finally gives us the reason why he came to the water in the first place: he wants to see and hear his friend again, and the monster's illusion is the only way he can. But he knows enough to be cautious. He doesn't want BDubs to touch him -- it could be the monster, keep your distance. He feels fear at the idea of deep water, something that nearly scares him out of the illusion, but when he's given the chance to break it [checking his heartbeat to see if it's unnaturally calm], it's knowing he'll stop seeing BDubs that makes him decide not to check.

Etho's flaw in this is he thinks he has more control than he does. He hasn't "come to the water" until he's stepped in. But the truth of the matter is, as soon as he decided he wanted to see BDubs again, he was already willing to be deceived, and someone can't be dragged in against their will.

"How long have I been in the water, BDubs?" [When did I fall for the charm?]

"Does it matter?" [The minute you missed hearing my voice.]

There are other little things I had fun with: the start and end of the illusion both have to do with armor, something that should protect him, but is useless when it isn't worn. Every time Etho makes the mistake of feeling safe, he can see the creature [in the river at the start, when it's trying actively to drown him at the end]. The fact that, when BDubs jumps in the water, Etho shouts "Keep your distance!" and Tango mentioned they would be listening for his scream, to come rescue him. The fact that BDubs straight up says "You're not scared of me, the monster, you're scared of the deep water. But people drown in shallow water all the time."

I dunno! Fun little things that up the stakes a little. This was a really fun one to work on :D

[fernsensei]

what if we'd make v2/gabriel a thing. what would happen then

[girlbob-boypants]

Me when I cosplay as a straight cop for a pride event, openly say on my blog putting him in pride colors didn't look right, shout for fictional cop pride publicly at the event, people respond with "acab", and then get a bunch of defense posts and free art while the cop pride part conveniently gets left out of all the info defending me:

[handkinkbis]

I had a shower thought about Destined With You after seeing some behind the scenes footage where many of the actors described their characters as being lonely. That's a big unifying factor for these different characters. And isn't that ultimately just the overarching theme of the show? The messy and desperate things people do to alleviate their loneliness.

We have Hong Jo who lost both her parents at a young age, who was bullied at school and who had no one to eat lunch with until recently. She also (very unethically tried to) cast a love spell to finally experience romantic love for the first time in her life.

We have Shin Yu with his complicated relationship with his parents (or mainly father), and Shin Yu's depressed mother who feels lonely in her marriage to her neglectful husband.

We have Naeyon, who's done erratic and horrible things in pursuit of Shin Yu's love, and who clung to him for two years despite never hearing an "I love you" back from him.

We have Jaekyung, who like Hong Jo didn't seem to have any close family or friends until he moved into the same building with Hong Jo.

There are the two female coworkers who develop crushes on all the hot lawyers at the office, but who spend their holidays alone.

Even creepy flower guy longs for his deceased wife.

So while I'm not going to stop yelling at everyone to stop making bad choices (never!!!), it's a show about messed up and even a few traumatized/depressed individuals. It doesn't make for great escapism, but I suppose they're all very human characters in that sense.

[tothesolarium]

Thoughts: can I make space elves?

[youngchronicpain]

am I really better or do I just know I can push myself to my very limit and have someone to actually take care of me at the end of the day?

[shoechoe]

as much as i understand the perspective it still breaks my heart a little when i see people call diavolo the worst villain because he's "boring". noooo i swear to you he's the opposite of boring he's just written really badly

[fullmetalwindbreaker]

i’m going to be very brave and finally actually try to care about and enjoy baldurs gate 3 even though the camera controls make me want to kill myself always every second. why does the camera rotate so fucking fast even on my mouses lowest dpi setting that these stupid overdetailed environments just blur together into a mess of visual noise. why would you not have a camera rotation speed setting at all. WHY CANT I FUCKING LOOK UP

[binders-and-beanies]

How do I say this in a way that won’t get me death threats,,, disabled and/or neurodivergent people often still experience some sort of ability related privilege. Pointing this out isn’t a comparison of disability level, but rather an acknowledgment that you do not understand the specific obstacle being discussed if it doesn’t apply to you. Especially if you make it abundantly clear that you don’t understand it, or even believe people about it.

You can be disabled and struggle immensely about it and still speak from places of privilege regarding other people’s disabilities. Unless you are disabled in every possible way, you are likely to have some sort of ability related privilege that you are unaware of and that intersects with your disability related oppression. You are not immune to ableism

[dnangelic]

still really cool imo how daisuke manages to be both the protagonist handling and solving a bunch of external problems around him for other people and yet he also needs his own problems and emotions taken care of. the instant his role in the story goes from selfless fairytale princess and christine bonding with the nonhuman, the monstrous, then he suddenly is erik and the monstrous beast himself. wow. like first he helps the snow queen and baku find peace with themselves then he immediately swings into 'all my friends and the people i love are going to hate me because i'm dark and i can't bear that, i'm going to die of heartbreak.' boy who just solved someone else's crisis not at all immune to regularly having a crises of his own. boy who does his best all the time every time to help others around him not immune to needing help himself

[medicinemane]

Should make a pain killer that actually kills (or even touches) pain

[aurosoul]

these are just screenshots I grabbed from my friend’s insta but I recently got to show my XR art to a couple of dancers from Switzerland who own a motion-capture studio and it was FASCINATING watching they way they moved as they interacted with my stuff!!

I created a magical forest with floating jellyfish and crystal orbs, and they moved through it with such grace and delicate hand motions that I felt like I could sense what they were seeing even though I was just looking on from outside

[lith-myathar]

Being obsessed with moral purity (and the appearance thereof) is far more likely to turn you into an abuser than a kind and compassionate person who cares for their community and there are so many cautionary tales about this in media and yet *gestures at all of social media*