#i do hope you like it

[imelht]

I drew Fylass. @george228732

[shallowseeker]

Trapped in new roles; SPN finale 15x20

There are a couple of ways you can take the finale, ranging from face-value to throwaway to the psy-pop-Sybil darkest of the dark. In this take, we're going to examine it as a trapped narrative, that here's the Home Bakery: the actual Cas, Dean, Sam & Jack.

The rest is set-dressing. It’s filled to brim with specter of the false-god-writers, agents Kripke and Singer, "miming" what they think the plot and finale should be. They are satirical and glib, missing their hearts and forever married to the Original Ending Idea and unwilling to grow. Uncanny valley- types.

Here, they’ve taken a family that is more than blood, (with Bobby Singer-style) dynamics, and they’ve force-fitted it to a nuclear family symbolism in order to kill it. The vibrant village community has shrunken to become pre-packaged American dream.

///

This is the Crowther family (sounds like crowder), of which only the father and youngest son are named aloud (Lyle and Brady). This family is being killed to appeal to your heartstrings.

1. Castiel falls; the first line of defense

Castiel is this black-and-tan-sentry of the door. This character has slightly Jack-and-Dean-esque style in terms of style (shoes and dark shirt + jacket) but he visually dies as Castiel did in 12x23. The writers break the shield (heavenly!protector) and move into the symbolic hearth of the home. They overwork him and drain him of all vitality and happiness before he goes.

2. Dean falls next; the second line of defense

This is the character they symbolically kill, but leave (bodily) intact. The one whose tongue they cut out. (As in Proverbs 10:31, "The mouth of the righteous flows with wisdom, But the perverted tongue will be cut out." Ergo, Dean is no longer righteous. He is corrupted. Broken.) The reaction shot calls to mind the mated reaction shot to the 12x23 scene above. Sam and Dean BOTH have a reaction to Castiel being felled, but visually this character is more similar to Dean.

This could, of course, call to mind Kelly or Mary or even Sam, but her duster is long and gray, like a MoL robe. Below: "Lyle?" / "Cas? Where's Jack?" (Bonus: green eyes)

(Goodbye, Dean.)

3. Sam in despair, bunkering down with another family member, still not safe

This one is easy to see. There's long hair, and Sam is wearing the same gray hoodie in the exact same episode, perhaps the most clear visual cue of all. The child also wears an orange jacket, which is the deep amber of endurance and one of Sam’s key colors.

4. Jack is last family member, clothed in the garb of Heaven (deep blood + blue sky)

The last family member's got the yellow balloon and blond hair, symbolic rising sun/son (Jack). He wears slightly Chuck & human!Cas manner of dress, signaling the humanity trapped inside the divinity. Ergo, the lineage of Chuck->Cas->Jack. (The blue is Heaven, the deep red represents royalty. (Bright red is blood and sacrifice.) Ergo, “royalty of Heaven.”

(First two images, Mikael.)

So, in the end, Sam and Jack were visually "saved," within the narrative.

But were they actually? They are both tied to destinies that feel empty and going-through-the-motions, like they're stranded on the island inside the childhood bedroom.

Symbolically, the trapped narrative almost seems to pick up where 15x18 Despair left off...

...except it continues the poofing of the loved ones, rippling outwards from Cas, before then moving to Dean, to Sam, and finally to Jack, watching as his remaining family member is dragged out from under the bed and ripped away from him.

///

It seems to suggest that, even if Cas and Dean hadn't, as Billie said, "been in the wrong place," that there was really no hope to start with. As Dean lamented, "we never should've left Sam n' Jack," like Amelia Novak lamented, "I never should've left her (Claire)." (The failed protectors’ refrain in SPN is, “I never should’ve left them!”)

But no matter where Dean and Cas were, they were never going to save Sam and Jack.

The writers were always going to win.

The ghostly specter of this episode is unsettling and unreal, oddly picturesque and "Charming Acres" -styled, like this shot reminiscent of the Monet-style painting.

It's a false world.

("What did you do to Dean? What did you do to Sam?")

Maybe I killed them? Or...maybe you just don't recognize them. Maybe I gave them new roles when they refused to play the right ones. Who knows, Becky? All I can tell you for sure is that I won.

Charitably, maybe the fight ain't over. I offer this to Becky's "No one even mentions Cas!" It's from Ouroboros:

Castiel: It's an odd and glaring omission. Sam: No. It's our shot....yeah. I-It's risky. But I-I think it's probably our best play.

Come on, Sammy. Break out of it.

[lazilybeinglassie]

@theghostshost is currently holding a prompt list for LMK this October. I thought I would try my hand at this, and decided to make each prompt a chapter in this 31 chapter story. Next day will be chapter 2, and I will either reblog this post when I add a new chapter everyday. (just trying to get some writting practice down and thought doing a prompt list would be fun) Hope you all like it, and if you do, come check out my other fics on the same A03 account I posted with. Enjoy!

[softquietsteadylove]

Soooooo uhm I wrote a Thenamesh story where their weddings vows were mentioned because they were married your honor anyway..now I wanna read about them tying the knot (eloping or an actual wedding non traditional or traditional) I don’t care too much about details. Love your work

This was starting to get out of hand. It was one thing to say they would pretend to be engaged to piss off his father (and distract him from giving Sersi a hard time about her broken engagement to Ikaris). It was another thing entirely to end up with his whole family wanting to help them plan a proper wedding around it.

Gil had said that they didn't need anything big--that they were just going to have a small thing. His family had no idea that he and Thena didn't actually have any work friends to invite. Somehow that became Thena staying with him and his mother and sisters as they planned a wedding to be held in their backyard in a week?

"What do you think?" Ajak smiled, turning to him.

"Uh," Gil shifted in his seat, barely looking up at Thena at all. "Yeah, looks great."

"Honey," Ajak huffed, putting her hands on her hips. "This is important!"

He ruffled his hair. How did they end up doing this? "W-Well...aren't I not supposed to see her in it before the wedding anyway?"

Ajak didn't bite, though. She raised a brow at her son, "really? I thought we had given up on tradition, seeing as I didn't even hear about your very sudden engagement from you yourself. I had to hear it from Sersi, remember?"

Gil winced. He really didn't like lying to his mom.

And Thena knew it. She had known Gil for years, and even then, it didn't take much to know that Gil was a big softie. He had asked her to help him with this whole thing to help out his sister to begin with. She sighed. "He's...you know how shy he can be."

Ajak saw right through the defense of Gil, as sweet as it was. She grasped Thena's hands in hers. "You mean he's quiet as a mouse, dear. But this is important! This is going to be your wedding dress! I know you didn't have anything particular in mind, but it should at least be something you like--something you feel beautiful in!"

Thena smiled. She liked Gil's mother. Ajak was exuberant, like Gil (when he was around friends), sweet natured, and the epitome of warmth. "It's a lovely dress, Ajak."

"I think so, my love," the shorter woman beamed up at her. She turned back to Gil again. "Tell me one thing you like about it and we can move on."

"Ugh," Gil sighed, but it was obviously a familiar move from both of them. He shifted in his seat again, finally letting his eyes really soak in the image of Thena in the lacy white dress his mother had found for her. "It's pretty."

"Gilgamesh!"

Thena bit back a smile as he rolled his eyes like a child. He stood from the seat, finally really truly looking at her. Thena blinked, wondering why she was suddenly much more nervous as Gil's eyes travelled over her.

"Well?" Ajak prompted him.

"Mom, I don't know if it really suits her," he shrugged, giving her his most honest opinion. He shoved his hands in his pockets. "Obviously it's beautiful--it's her. But I think she'd like something, uh...smoother?"

"What do you mean?" Ajak tilted her head, ignorant to Thena trying to process his words behind her.

"Well, she wears a lot of, um, satin or silk or whatever," Gil waved his hand in the air, still able to talk about it without blinking an eye. "I don't think the floral lace is really her thing. Thena?"

"Hm?" she blinked, all but startled into reality again.

"How do you feel in it?" he asked, walking closer to her - and blocking off his very offended mother - to get her more honest opinion.

Thena looked down at herself (at least that was the excuse). "I suppose...I never pictured myself in something so...gauzy."

"There y'go!" Gil stepped away again, unshielding Thena from his mother with a sigh.

"You said she looked beautiful, though!"

"Mom," Gil cut in, "look at her. Everything looks beautiful on her."

Thena looked down at the dress again, brushing off the slightly puffy skirt of it.

"Oh," Ajak smiled, stealing Thena's fidgeting hands away from herself with a wink (which only doubled her flustered feeling). "No need for maidenly blushing, dear."

Gil's head shot up to look at Thena. She looked away in just as much of a hurry. A grin spread over his face slowly. Maybe not everything about this plan was a terrible idea.

[broadcast-kinhelp]

x / x / x x / x / x x / x / x

[badolmen]

WARNING 18+

19

[werewolf-transgenderism]

keep seeing undergrads on social media saying “oh if a prof has a strict no-AI academic integrity policy that’s a red flag for me because that means they don’t know how to design assignments” like sorry girl but that just sounds like you’ve got a case of sour grapes about not being allowed to cheat with the plagiarism machine that doesn’t know how to evaluate sources and kills the environment! I have a strict no-AI policy because if you use AI to write your essays for a writing course it’s literally plagiarism because you didn’t write it and you’re not learning any of the things the course teaches if you just plug a prompt into the plagiarism generator that kills the environment, hope this helps!

[christadeguchi]

(✿◕‿◕) die (ꈍ ꒳ ꈍ✿)

[theoldaeroplane]

worried that thing you put in your art or writing or game or music is too self-indulgent, too self-referential, too niche for anyone but yourself? fear not! you can do whatever you want forever. and you should.

[snarkspawn]

based ofc on this

[sergle]

the threshold has been crossed, it is now springtime!!

[corviiids]

my top bit of advice going into the new year: compliment people. especially strangers. literally everyone you interact with if you can. when you buy coffee in the morning compliment the barista's tattoos. when you're chatting with a coworker tell them that by the way you like their outfit. always find something they've chosen to do on purpose. nail polish, jewellery, tattoos, hair colour/style, statement accessory, outfit, etc are all good bets. things people hope will be noticed. things that aren't too personal so it doesn't make them uncomfortable (eg probably not their physical features). i've gotten into the habit of scanning everyone i talk to for something about them that i think is cool so i can tell them. it's a great habit because it makes me notice people and realise just how many neat little details there are in people's presentation of themselves that might pass me by if i wasn't paying attention. and it brings out so much joy. you'd be surprised how much it disarms people to receive an unexpected compliment from someone they don't know. it is the most sincere smile you will see all day long. it feels nice to make people happy but it also means you win the social interaction. establish dominance by complimenting a stranger's earrings and disappearing into the fog

[hellspawnmotel]

intimacy between an evil spiteful building-sized supercomputer and the lone scientist left behind after everyone else ditched and forgot about her (in which computer wants to kill scientist really bad but her programming wont let her so she just attempts to make her as miserable as possible instead, which also doesn't work because scientist is a freak)

[emberglowfox]

Keeper -- a short comic about an angel meeting a robotic lighthouse keeper that doesn't know the world has already ended. Made in about 18 hours for a 24-hour 24-page* black and white comic challenge (that I arrived late to, ha.)

*the actual submission does not include the cover, which was created after the fact for this post.

This was a really great learning experience as someone who's... never really made a completed comic. I ended up really attached to the story by the end of the project (possibly due to all-nighter deliriousness lol) and ultimately am very proud of what I made.There are some things I'd still like to change, particularly text placement, but in keeping with the spirit of the challenge I've elected to leave it as is.

[marsipain]

Norwegian Mikus :)

Left is Miku as a russ and right is Miku in a bunad!

[chloesimaginationthings]

Happy 1 year anniversary to FNAF ruin!!