#in an extreme sense of the phrase

[dykeminecraft]

Found it

so uh. Starts off. myself, a kid named derrin, and some other folks are doing Something, we're down near the docks (which doubles as a train station (this doesn't take place anywhere I've ever been)) and we're just fucking around. Derrin starts panicking about some sort of Thing and starts saying something about a "shatter" that's gonna happen, we start running, we get to where this "shatter" is going to happen just as it does.

Derrin *vanishes*, so does everyone else, I'm left (almost) alone except! There's Some Fucking Thing with me.

we decide "ehhh we're here together may as well stick together" and start meandering around.

nothing is really. Right? Buildings have gone all weird, there's corridors in the middle of the street but that's a very good thing bc there's monsters wandering around that look very suspiciously like my companion but. it's fine.

we keep wandering around until we hear Someone Else Talking, and then realize whoever this is also has a Friend ("friend") but instead of this "friend" defending them, it's threatening them into helping it capture anyone who comes by. And they've Noticed Us

so my guy fucks off somewhere, I go hide under a table, the kid (bc the human in this "weird void goop thing & human" equation is a kid) fucking. Comes over and starts pointing at me even though I had a Very Good hiding spot

anyway so the void fucker (idk if that's what they actually are but. yknow) comes over and drags me out by the arm, I'm fucking Thrashing, and it "detects" something and drops me. probably figured out that I Already had a void fucker & that threatening/killing me would have been a Bad Idea.

so now we get worldbuilding! The basics are:

-The initial zone near the Shatter (<- that's the name) is the safest place to be. Not completely safe, but safest. It's colored yellow.

-The white zone just below that (on the map. It would've been across the street) However, it's the safest to most people - most people can't get to the yellow zone. There's a barrier. We suspect the reason that my void fucker & I can get through is bc I was right up against the Shatter when it happened

-The gray zone: Second most dangerous (you really did not want to leave the white/yellow zones - there's no safety outside of them), and the largest zone on the map. From what I understand this is mostly what it looks like on the map. It's a gray zone, everything is gray and bad.

-Red zone: this is the most dangerous place and it's on the very edges of the map. I wasn't given an explanation as to what it was like, but I can guess.

My void fucker came back at some point during the explanation. Derrin's fate remains unknown, nobody here can help, so we head back to the white zone

& it's surprisingly fairly normal? If you get into a good section. I helped a lady get her dog back in her yard.

The sky was dark, like nighttime, but for the most part the lighting was like during the day

Iirc the void fucker & I were just chillin out & taking a break for a little while before we started looking for Derrin

The void fucker could carry me, but most of the time if I was moving around it was sort of...I was "wearing" it, iirc mostly as a long (we're talking up to my shoulder) glove

this is a basic idea of how the map looks, pardon the patchy marker I didn't want to use up all my ink

there were little cracks of the gray zone all across the map, & on the map they didn't look too big but they were generally around the width of a street (for example, that gray line in between the yellow & white zones was the width of The Average City Street)

i believe my main goal was to find derrin but i had a Sneaking Suspicion he was somewhere in the red zone

the main threat was just the void fuckers, but the further out you went from the shatter, the nastier they got (both in terms of personality & in terms of "How Much Can They Kill You?")

miscellaneous Things:

-I don't know why the void fucker that was with me was actually helping me out. by all accounts it should have been trying to kill me. i didn't do anything to prompt this change either, it was just like "so...hi?" & i, not yet knowing that this void fucker was supposed to kill me, responded with "hi?"

-the void fuckers i ran into did not know where derrin was. they were also very confused as to why my void fucker was not trying to kill me, so i'm suspecting Whatever caused the weird behavior was not universal. bc they were trying to kill me, too. or at the very least tried to, they generally stopped once they figured out that i Already Had One

-we had been running toward the shatter bc Derrin was trying to stop it, but he failed. I was right up there with him, so it's not the proximity that made him vanish. it was also not a new thing to me - I knew about the node that caused it, he had told me about it, it's just that neither of us were expecting it to do. That

-the lady's dog did bite me i just remembered, but nothing happened to me. 99% odds that was the void fucker's doing

-aside from the void fucker that was With Me, pretty much all of them were being "nice" (see: not trying to kill me) to me begrudgingly. some of them even said they were betting on me dying. i did not care.

[slayerkitty]

There has been ongoing discussion of Only Friends amongst a few of us about central themes of the show and ideas Jojo seems to be exploring. We ended up in a discussion on ephemerality that led to a broader discussion on what the show is trying to say about permanency, mostly through the use of things like Boston's photography, surveillance videos, and other audio/visual means.

We also touched on the idea of voyeurism being a running theme (potentially tying back to the very public nature of queer culture in the 80's and 90's) based on the different medias being presented and the frameworks that each episode has used so far. I posited at the time that the different frameworks of each episode could be a type of voyeurism (and because we've brought up control), a type of controlled voyeurism; the voice overs, talking heads and even the Twitter posts are great for giving the audience insight into character insights, feelings and emotions but only what they want us to see.

There was also discussion in the tag about how this show feels like a throwback to sort of a late 90's aesthetic over all (I can't find this post - specifically I'm thinking of a post that mentioned OF had a very Dawson's Creek aesthetic, which hit me like a truck when I read it because YES). Given that Jojo was born in 1984, so I think this post about OF being the voice of 80's babies is right.

So, you must be asking, duh, we've already talked about this. What's your point?

All of this extremely prolific long-windedness is because I noticed something while watching the Let's Try MV from the OST as well as the BTS videos that have been released so far and I don't think anyone has mentioned it.

In the MV, shots from the show (both what appear to be canon and a smidge of BTS material) are shown like they were filmed on a mid-90's camcorder. This also happens in the in the BTS videos as well (episode 1, episode 2.)

Also, both the MV and the BTS videos have visual effects. Transitions like lens flares, static, and whatever that blippy line distortion was on VHS tapes that we fixed with the tracking buttons (if you know, you know) repeatedly show up in both.

(Please prepare yourself for some absolutely horrible screenshots; I have no skills in this area, lmao, but I wanted a couple of visuals)

(What? No, I didn't choose these three screenshots because of the colors, absolutely not. I also absolutely am not tagging @respectthepetty because of it either, nope. Don't know what you're talking about.)

But Slayerkitty, you ask, what does it mean?

It definitely shows that we're on the right track regarding this, I think, because using it in the MV and BTS materials is a very deliberate choice given the amount of photo, video, and audio focus the show has done to this point. Interestingly, you could also say the BTS videos are a type of controlled voyeurism as well, since it's a specific peek at how things were made (the view they want us to have lol).

(Also interesting but I'm not sure if it means anything or if they just thought it looked cool, but in the MV from about 2:29-2:40 and 2:52-3:10 the scenes are all "camcorder" video and the second time stamp is pretty much all BTS footage.)

(P.S. I also don't think anyone mentioned it before now, but that fluffy jacket/cardigan thing we're all obsessed with that Ray wore in episode two is what Khaotung is wearing the MV. It looks like they probably shot the episode two car scene and the MV the same day/night.)

Tagging the ephemerality squad and anyone who's posts I linked to, in case you guys have any thoughts: @waitmyturtles, @wen-kexing-apologist, @ranchthoughts, @chickenstrangers, @lurkingshan, @twig-tea, @clara-maybe-ontheroad, @distant-screaming, @shouldiusemyname

I know I forgot someone, I'm sure! Apologies if I did. I'm gonna have to make a list, lol.

[sysig]

I wasn’t using that heart anyway it’s fine (Patreon)

[shu-bullshit]

Homosexual Underground has an extra layer of funny to me cause, I really feel if you just pull out literally any Depeche Mode photos from the 80s and slap "HOMOSEXUAL UNDERGROUND" and it would just look like the actual band name.

Why is his shirt always open???

[planet4546b]

i’m honestly not all that pressed about not knowing what the veil is (<- guy who is the num one garden enjoyer and never wants a concrete answer on what it actually is) but i also sort of keep coming back to the important part of it just being like. it’s name. the veil as in the veil between life and death. the veil as the in ‘beyond the veil’. destiny is a game about death in like four trillion different ways and the division between light and dark isn’t quite as simple as light = life and darkness = death but there is a division there and to me the veil seems like a connection across that line. the traveler is a dead thing and the veil opens a hole in its heart but the veil itself also feels like the traveler. it requires both the light and darkness to open that direction. the visual of your ghost (your GHOST!!) floating up towards it and drifting away from you. it’s rooted in darkness. it’s imitated and mirrored in the garden, a place of life. it’s the matrix for the un-death of the cloudark. the witness uses it to go to a plane we can’t follow it to. it’s even underground. am i making any sense

[lisbonsteresa]

knees weak, arms are heavy

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

having feelings abt translation

[reticent-fate]

i don't mean to vagueblog about other folks in the tag, but i was going through the angelkin tag and saw a very pretty version of the bible that happened to have the translation written on the front.

(if you're seeing this, hi, your copy of the bible is extremely pretty and i am not knocking you for it, it just made my brain spark some very tired sludgy neurons)

i am well aware not all of us identify with the bible (maybe not even any abrahamic texts)--- i mean, i'm one of those angels that doesn't entirely. but there are those in my system that do more heavily rely on the bible as part of what defines their identity. they also work in the framework of christianity, so they've done research to find a translation that meets their standards (accurate and complete).

(i think the post that we actually used to decide that is on one of our many sideblogs)

all this is convoluted preamble to my question, which is: what translations of various texts do you use, and how did you come to that decision regarding them?

-res

[resignedseraph]

I think whether a religion (as in an individual person’s or community’s practice of a religion) is harmful or not can be pretty easily indicated by the question, “Could one become independent from this religion and still be fully loved, supported, and accepted by their family, community, and/or state?”

I don’t think this can be applied to a whole religion, but if the answer is consistently “No,” then that’s a sign that there needs to be change

[satanfemme]

[ID in alt]

Cathedral of Our Forbearer; a Hymn to G-d, V. V. also available on neocities here: asmoday.neocities.org/Poems.html !

[astrxealis]

okay i'll seriously stop now (just a maybe) anyways please get into milgram listen the songs watch the mvs and all! <3

but just to ramble a bit: fuuta really is. so similar to the viewers/es

[panvani]

Idk just another way where despite Tamsyn Muir making the explicit conceit of her setting that they live in a culture of death worship Muir just has no even superficially interesting ideas about this

[phantomrose96]

Thinking about Edward Elric as the Amestrian Military's specialest little unfireable boy

State alchemists can be fired for underperforming. We know this up front from the likes of Shou Tucker. And this makes a ton of sense from the homunculi's standpoint since the state alchemists are sacrifice candidates, and the homunculi would want to cull the weakest candidates and focus only on cultivating the strongest ones who stand the best chance of opening the portal.

........Then there's Edward. Who's already opened the portal.

There's no need to cultivate him. No gamble taken on whether he's good enough to open the portal. He passed the final test already. Graduated 4 semesters early.

And as such, has a free pass to do Absolute Fuck All.

And I'm imagining how funny this is from like an outside perspective.

Some newish state alchemist who'd only ever read up on the stories of Edward Elric, ready and excited to start their career of being paid handsomely with endless freedom to research and travel and do anything they want in the pursuit of science... surprised and confused to find themselves put on probation their first month for things like "ignoring orders." Which is, as best they had thought, a famous Edward Elric pastime.

Roy showing a slight bit of stress about his yearly state alchemist report, and Ed just snorting and rolling his eyes at Roy because every year HE just hastily does his on the train ride over (canon in the manga, a travesty it was left out of the anime) and it gets rubber stamped. Ed not realizing that other alchemists' reports get genuinely scrutinized and torn apart while Ed is free to turn in whatever absolute bullshit he thinks of 36 hours ahead of time. One year his report was about whether alchemy could be done via dance (conclusion: no it can't) and no one cared. Roy WANTS to tell Ed there's some kind of unknown favoritism around Ed making him literally bullet-proof but Roy has no way to phrase this that doesn't sound like he's just in denial and mad at how good Ed's train-reports are.

Guy from the Internal Amestrian Affairs sector who's responsible for auditing other internal military personel for any suspicious activity hitting about 1 million red flags for Edward Elric, issuing a STRONG and URGENT recommendation to suspend the alchemist pending further investigation into things like "literal bunk-buddies with two members of the Xingese royalty (enemy nation)" and "spent $10,000,000 of his stipend on a librarian to make her re-copy (what he seemed to interpret as?) military records in some extremely transparent effort to unearth state secrets (it was a recipe book but he was literally asking her about state secrets)" and "literally has never once obeyed an order, ever, not even once in his career, and is on public record having said 'I do not care about the goals and protections of the Amestrian Military. I am in fact only pursuing my own interests several of which are diametrically opposed to the safety and well-being of the governing body of Amestris'"

The issued recommendation is intercepted before it even reaches its intended desk. President Bradley himself has taken issue with it and denies it before a single set of eyes has seen it. The President's veto stamp is a terrifying hammer, used rarely, and it is now sitting on the auditor's desk.

The auditor sleeps with one eye open from then on out.

[misfortunegirl]

i usually keep everything bottled up, but if there was one thing i wish i could openly talk about, it would be my fear of abandonment 💬

[colorisbyshe]

I just came across a tweet saying that Aaron Bushnell--the man who burned himself to death while yelling Free Palestine until he couldn't anymore--will be "in the history books" and that phrase has been coming up a lot. And it chafes me every time I read it, every time I hear it.

Cause, a. no, a lot of this won't be in the American history books. American atrocities, especially those overseas but even those against American people (especially American people of color), don't go in the literal history books. Or the figurative ones. Most American atrocities are wiped from the collective memory... sometimes as soon as they happen. They go unreported (like the first person to self immolate to protest this genocide), they go erased, they go whitewashed, they go falsely recontextualized, and they get twisted into pro-America sentiment--we were right for those atrocities, we were wrong for them but we learned, we didn't learn from it but we felt bad about it and should be comforted for that soreness.

And b. is harder to verbalize but I'm gonna try. It feels... performative in the literal sense. Like we only value what is happening today out of deference for how people in the future will perceive it. We aren't doing anything to change anything NOW, to care about other people NOW, but so that one day... we'll be remembered a caring. Like this man killed himself as gesture, as a move for his legacy.

And I see this phrase--"this will be remembered in the history books"--whipped out in extremely horrific contexts. A child's dead body hanging off a wall, "oh, this will be in the history books." What does that even mean? Was her death worth the historical context? Was it necessary to embellish the horror of it all?

Would the people reading these hypothetical history books not get the wrongness of the genocide without the death of a little girl that you're using as... window dressing?

It just seems so weirdly self satisfied. Like you're eager to note you just witnessed a real moment that people will remember decades from now. When... a lot of people won't which is what is so tragic. A lot of people don't even know it's happening right now.

Because, again, it's not being reported. And when it is being reported it's not being reported honestly.

I'm not saying this well but it just feels like such a gross reaction to things we're seeing in real time.

Why does it have to matter later to matter now? Why is the hypothetical reaction of a history book reader the thing you think about?

A lot of people won't live to read those "history books" because people, right now, aren't doing anything to help them.

[funnyexel]

what if your stalker loses the remaining piece of human decency he has left

okay.

he was scaring you, acting extremely scary and out of character in your eyes. even if that's who he's always been under the mask...

"no. stay longer." he demanded said.

"it's getting late, and I've been with you for a few days." you replied back, still trying to be polite and understanding in some way. you kept a comfortable smile on your face as you continued, "remember what I said about having time to miss me?"

he didn't want to hear that shit. you said this so often that it actually made him not want to hear your voice. even with the rampant thoughts of wanting to grab the nearest fabric and shove it in your mouth to shut you up, he brushed his hair back to express mild frustration with your words.

and with all this conversation, you still didn't make a definite move. you didn't get up, you didn't sternly say you were leaving and you definitely didn't get up to automatically pack up your things.

"stay." the shorter his phrases got, the shorter his temper got as well and your patience was getting worn too. you try to be a patient person but when he acts so entitled and childish, you can't help the awkward yet strained laugh that comes from your chest.

"I can't do it. I need to go back to my house." you were stern and here comes the attempt the remove yourself from the premises.

you got up from your laying position on the bed and closed up your already packed bag, you planned this, you planned to leave today and you were executing it.

you could feel the adamant stare on your back coming from him. you rolled your eyes and shook your head. you have a minuscule understanding of what's going on in his head, quite minuscule compared to what is actually going on.

"I won't say it again." you look over to him and tilt your head, you were perplexed by his word choice.

"oh, don't be so dramatic." you utter as you put on sweatpants and you thought he was simply trying to intimidate you with his harsh tone and odd wording. but you were naïve to the obvious signs.

he considered letting you go but the way you looked in those sweats, his sweats. he couldn't. not this time.

he grabbed you by the neck, his thumb on one side of your jaw while his four fingers are on the other side. with his chest pressed up against your back, he pushed the bedroom door closed. he was breathing heavily.

like breathing uncomfortably down your ear.

you mistakenly utter his name and his thumb that was fitted on your jaw, pressed your lips together firmly.

he was clicking his tongue as you felt his head shake next to yours. as your chest was raising and falling noticeably, his icy hand slithered up your shirt and you felt a chilling sensation from your sternum to the top of your esophagus.

you felt your resolve shattering under him as he ripped the bag from your hands and spun you around. he couldn't even began to forge together any words as he brought your face close to his. your scent intoxicating him once more and he feels that certain emotion snap inside of him.

something that held him back from taking in all of you.

pushing you down onto the bed, it didn't feel like how it usually did, soft and welcoming, it felt hard and stringent. he grabs your wrist harshly and you couldn't take your eyes off of him. but his actions were still full of intent as you felt your wrist binded to the bed.

you don't know how to feel. one moment you are protesting loudly and kicking at him and the next you are moaning when he so much as squeezes and twists your nipple through your shirt.

he refused to prep you and give you that sense of pleasure, like this was supposed to be pleasureful, it wasn't. as he had you on your back—right wrist tightly tied onto the bedframe—he made you put your feet on his chest. sadistically, wanting to feel you push away from him as he pushed into you raw. it hurt. like hell.

your free hand pushed your hair harshly out your face as you threw your head back on the bed and in this specific moment he felt your resistance the most. but at the same time he felt the way you were desperately pulling him in and in. like you were just begging him to touch your cervix.

he was pushing in slowly, slow and shallow thrusts into you and rubbing your clit ever-so-often even if you obviously didn't deserve it. he wants to hear those sweet moans, even if those whiny pleads are ruining the experience.

he can't focus on your walls suffocating his dick when all you're doing is crying your heart out. with a clear irritation he pushes down on your stomach as he leans over to get a piece of tightly woven rope. you didn't get a moment to slap him away as he was already looming over you, forcefully putting the rope over your mouth and around your head. tying it tight enough so it won't come off and it will effectively muffle those loud and annoying cries.

"I don't want to hear you speak."

you were expecting a quaint 'understand?' from him but the question would've been a waste of breath because of the way your body forced itself to relax under him.

at this moment he straightened your bent legs and put them on his shoulders, folding your body in half as he stayed at an acute angle. the tears and snot running down your face shouldn't have egged him on into ramming into you harder, faster, and dry especially.

but by the time he was leg up and full on pounding into you, you were wet enough for it. you were turned on by this, by him and his authority.

at least.

that's what he was getting from this.

you bite down on the rope as you whine through yet another orgasm and you sniffle up the snot as your free hand claws into the bed. its like you were scared to touch him. and that did hurt him a bit when he realized but the warmth. the look of vulnerability in your eyes as he does nothing but bully your gummy walls, is as addicting as drugs to him.

panting like a dog above you, he completely stops for a moment. clearly getting lightheaded as he puts one hand next to your head for stability. your eyes shoot open at the suddenness of his movements and as your eyes lock, he gives you such a conceited smirk.

pleased with his actions.

even when he's clearly overexerting himself from how pussy drunk he is.

he takes a huge breath, sitting upright and running his fingers through his hair. yanking your lifeless legs to his chest, he shifts his technique to quick and shallow thrusts. your body jolting violently against your will. but this is what he wants.

against your will.

this is his will.

this is what he wants from you.

he wants you to cum, over and over and over again until you get it into your thick head.

you have no will.

and because you have no will to control your bodily functions, your bound hand clenched in a tight fist as you cum again.

you had a wicked imprint across your face and your wrist was blood red. you couldn't didn't leave. not until he said so. and he didn't say so.

not yet.

leaning down to your ear, his hand squeezes your arm tightly as you sat in his suffocating embrace. stiff in his arms as you didn't want to engage in any touch with him. it angered him.

"do I need to use the rope again."

the dead tone he used in combination to his slow pace of words sent a sharp shiver down your spine.

with a soft exhale of a shaky breath, you hesitantly shake your head and his draped arm tugs you impossibly closer to his side.

"good." he gave you a small belittling pat on your forearm as he kissed your forehead and he's quite proud to call himself

your boyfriend.

a/n: someone pls take this trope away from me. anyway thats all for now, literally can't stop thinking about the possibilities for this. thanks to the anons that were asking for more! honestly made me more incline to post.

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