#life in the darkest timeline

[paulsebert]

(X)

[mc-lukanette]

It didn’t take long as a snake holder, even as a temporary one, for Luka to start noticing things. At first, he didn’t know what to make of it, thinking it might be his imagination until Sass explained it to him.

Effective snake holders saw what humans called “fate” or “destiny,” as snakes had inherent power - whether magical or otherwise - to change what was meant to be, with the miraculous simply giving them more chances to do so. They saw how the universe ordered itself and how it decided to keep itself in balance.

Luka noticed it first-hand when Marinette was visiting, the teal wisps of “fate” he’d grown used to almost seeming drawn to her with how often he saw them near her. He realized what they were doing and rushed over just in time to catch her before she could hit the ground, the teal wisp fading from underneath her foot as everyone else presumed that she’d tripped over nothing.

“O-oh, Luka, thank you!” she hurried to say. “I’m sorry, I’m so--”

“It’s not your fault,” he whispered, though unable to clarify any further.

Sass would later speculate that the universe saw Marinette’s many talents as something to “balance,” hence her incredibly bad luck. Luka hated that he could only make attempts to stop it when he was together with her.

His sensing didn’t stop there either, as he soon learned that the “red string of fate” was a very real concept. The idea of “soulmates” was a little beyond him, but it was impossible to deny when he saw a red string going from Juleka’s pinkie finger to Rose’s. He recalled the comments that Sass made and wondered if he had influenced fate enough to get them together without even realizing it.

Then came a day on the Liberty, where Adrien had actually been able to show up to play with the rest of the band. Luka hadn’t meant to notice the red string on Adrien’s ring finger, slightly tangled with the ring he was wearing, but Luka also didn’t know how to “turn off” his sensing so he wouldn’t see it.

Almost involuntarily, his eyes followed the length of the string. He didn’t know what his mind had been hoping for, but he suspected that part of him wanted to see the string connect to the one he wasn’t crushing on.

Then, as his eyes traveled upwards and he confirmed who was on the other end of the string, his blood ran cold. It was indeed Marinette, but that wasn’t what had shocked him. He’d always been so used to red strings being attached to someone’s hand and thus presumed that it couldn’t wrap around anything else.

Yet, Marinette’s end of the red string was wrapped around her neck.

[your-heart-is-a-treasure]

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.

[rchtzr]

there’s an alternate timeline where a different actor was cast as adult eddie and they read the book and fought for different characterization and andy also released the supercut

[saricahjessicaparker]

Just losing it over this

[lookninjas]

Sure would be nice if I had a way of getting help for an actively paranoid and delusional customer trying to buy a firearm that didn’t carry such a high risk of getting him shot and killed by the people supposed to be helping him!

Sure would be nice.

[fruitytrollroll]

since y'all are so good i wanna share my Jamack Appreciation Playlist!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nafClMYKectpCZNfGyOeo?si=hoXoTtR4QLaLtyXFsDbgtQ

im constantly reorganizing it so please excuse the mess, and enjoy! 💚🐸💚

[septembersghost]

Dean literally called Cas brother in that dub as well, but the shippers only care about seeing what they want to see and needing an excuse about why it didn’t go fully canon so they gotta make up a theory on the network fucking them over instead of admitting to themselves that the writers were never gonna go there

oh. I haven’t even seen that addressed.

see, that fundamentally changes the context from Dean’s perspective, and I know no one wants to hear that, but this is a very fraught, complicated dynamic for him. He would need significant time to process it. Dean saying anything in immediate response strikes me as out of character, whereas the reaction he had, the way Jensen played that, struck me as right, as did Cas’/Misha’s, and that’s why that scene was dramatically and emotionally overwhelmed with meaning for me. keep in mind that Dean not only has trouble accepting the love he deserves, he also believes that everyone who loves him gets hurt, and he has deep-seated abandonment issues, and this was yet another loved one telling him how much he meant to them right before they leave him. all of that was colliding into him at once in those brief moments. that’s why he slid to the floor and wept.

it’s hard for me because I deeply care about that relationship, but in a somewhat different way than most of the fans. if they’d made it canon, fulfilled canon, I’d have been here for it, and if they’d kept it in that mysterious, deeply felt nebulous place, I was here for that too. I never needed it confirmed because the relationship was already, well, profoundly bonded, so whatever the iteration...I didn’t hinge myself too much on the definition. (though, for lengthy reasons, I might prefer it unrequited.) I’m not at all saying they’re wrong or I’m right, and I usually have somewhat different perspectives on ships anyway bc they’re not my primary focus in any story, I’m used to my brain’s wiring not quite aligning and I think we all invest in stories differently, and that’s great and worthwhile. I would never say that they shouldn’t be upset or feel invalidated (who wasn’t invalidated by what was done?). but there’s a really vital aspect of that scene which is being lost in this uproar.

and that is that it was selfless. it was not about Cas, and that’s...tricky to parse because it was a moment of actualization for him, and he needed to express it, deserved to, and I’m glad it was confirmed romantically for him...but that scene was for and about Dean. or, it should have been, if the ending had not been what it was. Dean, who has been mired in self-loathing, recklessly thrown himself at danger when he felt it didn’t matter whether he lived or died, sacrificed over and over again for Sam and for others, who has said that he’s poison, who has said he loses everyone and everything, who had to hear countless characters demeaning him, including his father for the formative years of his life. who had to hear, “are you that screwed in the head?,” and “the very touch of you corrupts,” and “you are human disorder incarnate” (in that very episode), who internalized all of it. and still loved so deeply anyway, even though he believed he didn’t deserve it back.

I’ve called it a catalyst because it was one. it was meant to hold weight, to precipitate permanent change for Dean. you raised your baby brother out of love. everything you did was for love. I cared about the whole world because of you, because of your love, and I see that, and I love you for it. that is radical empathy, it is radically authentic free will. coming from a celestial being, who theoretically had no basis for this at all, yet he learned it from this one person, whose soul he held in his hands, whose damage he saw so frequently, who he inflicted so much hurt upon (and vice versa, though the physical power dynamic was almost always imbalanced in confrontations and that could be troubling, there were also many harsh words between them), and Cas said, through all of that, he knew it was for love. this is monumental for Dean to hear. having him say anything in response undercuts its essential meaning, because it wasn’t about want or have, it was not at all possessive, it was affirming. this is who you are. hear it. believe it. use it. honor me by choosing to live in it.

and then he did! he fully accepted it! he tore his free will (as did his brother at his side) from the grip of a petty, vindictive almighty, who called him “the ultimate killer,” and he rejected the toxicity of that label and chose mercy. I’ve said this already, but I’m just not over it! it’s SO MUCH?! we seriously only got like fifteen minutes to live with the enormity of, “That’s not who I am.” yet that acknowledgement was everything for Dean! it set up an entirely new path for him, and was full of hope.

I expected/wanted what happened with Cas to be addressed in 15x20, and there were a number of ways that could have been done that I would have been happy with, be it a conversation with Sam acknowledging what it meant (with Sam reaffirming it, like, of course he loved you, of course he knows your actions are born of love, I know it too. they didn’t even let Sam say he loved his brother back?! which is the most devastating non-reciprocation in the entire show for me, it hurts in a way that I don’t even want to think about it, I don’t want to talk about any of that scene’s existence). He could’ve prayed to Cas, hoping he could still hear him, and given us whatever his emotions were in that way. We’ve seen him pray so many times, imagine a soft acknowledgment, in his room, his dog resting at his side. Of course they could’ve had Cas come back, though I saw that as the least likely conclusion, because I thought his sacrifice might stick, to give it gravity. (instead, it was pointless, because Dean is dead and Cas is in heaven anyway? as if Cas wouldn’t immediately be like [apparently at the end of his rope, he really had to pick this particular human], “I just died for you! why are you here? how DARE you give up? get back to your life! I’ll hear your prayers and visit in like three days, can you possibly manage to NOT die before then?” and resurrected him the moment he dropped into heaven). 

I fully anticipated that we would see Dean quietly, assuredly putting the pieces of his life together in a way that honored what Cas said in every moment - which we almost got, with the domesticity (minus the ooc of his messy room, but honestly, he deserves to be lazy about it for once) and the sweetness with Miracle and the job application. He was rebuilding. He was moving with a lighter step, and that was good. That was quiet action still done out of love. Without making anything explicitly stated, there were SO many ways to make it implicit and still have it be a beautiful testament to them both.

edit: Misha’s tweets confirmed/reinforced what I felt about that scene (though, unfortunately, I disagree with him on the takeaway because the ending slashed the throat of everything, but I know what he means and agree on the heart of it), and I really hope people are able to absorb and hear that, but I still ache for the fact that so many of us are so deeply hurt by various aspects of the story and the fates of our beloved characters.

[displayheartcode]

the amount of stress between now and the election 

[paulsebert]

[snappingsweater]

Abed Nadir is canonically a Bill and Ted fan

[samslaptop]

where my 20-something year olds oscillating between sheer utter panic and complete apathy and indecision about planning for a future that they never truly believed they would experience only to have any and all future plans flung into the sun by economic collapse, social unrest, a looming fascist state, and a mother fucking pandemic at

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

[sheliesshattered]

I have maintained for years that it’s not possible for me to be bored. There’s always a dozen different things going on in my brain, and at least that many things that I want to make at any given time. And yet.

[theorangedead]

“Jair Bolsonaro falsely accuses actor of funding deliberate destruction of rainforest“

This is the worst and weirdest timeline 

[miazeklos]

The behind the scenes of the episode has made me revisit Jaime and Euron’s fight and in the process I’ve come to several realisations:

1. From all ‘throwaway lines from many seasons ago actually mean something’ moments, this has to be the best one, since in the end, for Jaime in particular, this truly ended up being the war for Cersei’s– the war for– they could write a ballad about them is what I’m getting at.

2. It was mentioned previously, but this scene drove the point home that Euron did really love Cersei - in his own words, the city was dying and he was still heading for the exact same entrance as Jaime and, also in his own words, clearly planned on seeing her again - and that throws off the entire view I had of their dynamic.

3. Being minutes away from death in a collapsing building while your two supposed generals are fighting in your backyard over who gets to end up with you in the unlikely event that any of the three of you survives is the most Cersei Lannister thing to ever happen to anyone.

[lookninjas]

My footwear manager is out until his Covid test comes back. 3 to 5 days, they said.

It is two days until inventory.

This is going to be a super spreader event.