#next to normal thoughts

[psybrepunk]

Once again thinking about this photo of Brent Spiner in the makeup chair for TNG because maybe it's just me but this is a modern renaissance painting.

[deikshen]

Shen Qingqiu accidentally got caught in one of the plagiaristic wife plots from Airplane, becoming cursed like Medusa. Literally. Anyone he sees turns into a stone statue and has many snakes instead of hair. Airplane said it was an interesting way to explore papapa blindfolded and Shen Qingqiu hated him more for it.

However, the only one who now knows his situation is Mu Qingfang; in the eyes of the rest of the Sect, Shen Qingqiu was blinded as a result of some curse. He hides the snakes with talismans drawn on his skin that make people unable to perceive them, they just see him all the time with his long hair loose and untidy.

Snakes are a piece of shit. They hiss and talk all the time and only Shen Qingqiu can fucking understand them. They gossip about how sexy Liu Qingge is, talk shitty about Airplane, and make weird and unfortunate comments all the time. Shen Qingqiu can hardly concentrate many times.

Snakes are also... nice. In a way. They nibble at his cheeks and force him to eat something. They tell him secrets they hear. They smell the air and tell him when it's going to rain or if a disciple has been misbehaving. With Luo Binghe in the Abyss, they are certainly pleasant company.

Then Jinlan arrives, and Shen Qingqiu may be blind to the jianghu, but that doesn't mean he won't show up. It will help even with a blindfold – in fact, he can see through it, albeit in black and white and mostly in very poor quality. It's as if he's using his qi to see thanks to the talismans he's developed with Mu Qingfang! Which also means that when Without-a-Cure attacks him, he's completely blind behind the blindfold, but oh well. Occupational hazards.

And then, Luo Binghe is there.

And their snakes go fucking crazy, excited, not one of them is scared, damn it! They've all heard of Binghe – seriously, Shen Qingqiu may have told them about Binghe, but SERIOUSLY! Don't put it like that! It's just his disciple who came back to kill him. And the Protagonist. YOU, ENOUGH SAYING HE'S SEXY.

Shen Qingqiu survives the first encounter without being dismembered, with the whole bunch of snakes murmuring and squealing excited hisses that only Shen Qingqiu can hear and understand. Fine. He just needs to protect himself with Liu-shidi and...

And of course Luo Binghe steps forward, cornering him in his own room. Of course he had to be faster and...

God, seriously, stop saying he's hot!

Shen Qingqiu is grateful that no one but him can hear any of those chaotic snakes. Except that–

Why the HELL can Luo Binghe also hear and understand them!? Seriously, Airplane!? That wasn't in the novel!! Luo Binghe, don't castrate your scum Shizun for being lustful too, all that stuff about you being sexy and hot isn't just thoughts you're accidentally hearing! It's the snakes in the hair of this master!!

... Why doesn't Luo Binghe seem disgusted by all those snake murmurs, though? There's no way he's okay with Shen Qingqiu thinking that way about him – AND IT'S NOT THAT SHEN QINGQIU THINKS THAT WAY ABOUT HIM!

[dreamsy990]

drew some of my fav ody designs! wasnt originally meant to be also replicating the styles but thats sort of just how my brain works. except i didnt copy the lineart styles of anyone here so its DEFINITELY a bit uncanny for a couple of these (LOOKING AT YOU QINNY IM SO SORRY) but whatever

the designs featured here (from left to right) belong to: me, @gigizetz, @neal-illustrator, @irunaki, @bigidiotenergytm, @qinnyanimation, and @foopsie-daisy

[im-not-over-it]

Hey so I’m actually obsessed with this photo

[pseudophan]

I can’t see the arm around Dan help someone outline pls ;_;

arm

[houseofmarcella]

dear god Albus Potter do you utterly haunt my thoughts

Just… Albus in the cursed child, for as mixed as people seem to be on it… Albus as the certified middle child who doesn’t have the cloak, doesn’t have the map, who doesn’t even have a family name?

Can you imagine little Al (not yet Albus because that’s a name he truly goes by once he has Scorpius) tucking himself into the cracks of the door as he hears his parents talking, hears his dad say it would have been better to know they were having two boys so they could have just called him Sirius

Al, getting teased by his invisible brother, yet seeing so distinctly that his father chose James over him for their family legacy

Al, who grew up on the filtered advice of a distant, out of reach mentor who he could never live up to. Not like James with his fun, his humor, or Lily with her love and her girlhood.

(Albus, who will hear Cedric called the spare and understand far too well what it’s like to be of secondary importance)

Al, who out of all his siblings looks the most like his father, a reflection to every family friend of what harry went through and an eternal reminder to himself and the world that he will always be his father’s legacy (he will look in the mirror for most of his adult life and see his father before he sees himself)

Al, age 11, seeking comfort on the train platform as everything changes around him and getting another lecture about bravery that he doesn’t feel he has

Al becoming Albus on that train, when the boy who would become the most important person in his life actually asks him, asks him what he wants to be called

Albus, under the sorting hat, struggling but thinking about who he wants to be outside of his family’s legacy and getting put in Slytherin for it

Albus, who grew up on war stories and hogwarts hyjinks staying up half his first night because he’s afraid of his peers, but doesn’t want them to know that because he so desperately and conflictingly wants to both fit in and stand out

Albus, who is bad at flying, humiliating himself in front of his peers, because he isn’t harry but isn’t Quidditch player Ginny either… Albus, who all the adults see as Harry’s extension; Albus, who struggles with charms like Lily never will, who can barely make his matchstick silver under the blue eyed portrait in the room, who struggles to parse through the moving and unequal words of wizarding textbooks, who attracts bullies like flies and doesn’t yet have his mother’s hexes to fight back

Albus, struggling to write that first letter home, to tell his parents and little sister that he’s different from them; Albus who doesn’t even get to tell them because James tells them first

Albus, who doesn’t get a green scarf and hat until after the first snow, unable to parse if it’s the color, the fact that he’s the second born, or maybe just that it’s him that made it come later than James’ had

Albus, who goes back home for Christmas and faces his father’s disapproval for befriending a Malfoy, his father’s distrust and attempts to assure his morality for befriending someone harry assumes cruel and antagonistic

Albus, having to hold awkward conversation with Rose and Ron and Hermione, because neither of the kids want their parents to know they’re not talking (they find out eventually, and though they’re nice about it, Albus knows they’ll always put Rose’s feelings first)

Albus, who is suddenly assumed more malicious and problem causing than he ever was before, who suddenly is seen as a prime person to scot the blame off to when things go wrong

Albus, who gets chosen after his sister (“just like her mother!”) during the family quidditch match; who gets meaningful looks from his Uncle Percy; whose Christmas sweaters are no longer red but never green; who suddenly cant seem to talk to his uncle ron anymore, someone who used to understand what it was like to be James’ brother

Albus potter who stradles the line of too Potter for Slytherin and too Slytherin for his family.

Albus Potter, who’s ambition has been squashed out by bullies and disregard and distrust, struggling to find his identity in a house and world that is still in the midst of undoing decades as an indoctrination machine…

[crnl-chicken-tots]

golden cheese has 99 problems and honestly these two somehow are or will become every one of them

[hopeswriting]

reminder that if you back tsuna into a corner he

A) sends you right back into the worst prison for mafia criminals you just escaped from, but even worse than before (enjoy being unconscious and tied up in your one room swimming pool for the next 10 years)

B) freezes you with flames burning so hot they turned into ice (< this isn't how the zero point breakthrough is explained in canon but it's the more dramatic explanation), fully knowing you were already frozen by similar ones for 8 years until, like, a month prior

C) burns you fucking alive and also undoes the last 10 years of your existence across all existing timelines. also he won't think anything about it afterwards ever (?????? like. it's not that he didn't deserve it, to be clear, but damn. 😭😭😭 middle schoolers when you just want to take over the world(s) for a bit, smdh 🙄)

D) is willing to become the boss of the most powerful mafia family in the world with a bloodstained history if it means getting the opportunity to get his hands on you and kill you beat the shit out of you. but you're lucky he likes you so you could stay on very thin ice long enough for both of you to clear things up

E) gangs up against you with all the current and future strongest people in the world, and then punches you so hard he makes you see the light of doing the right thing despite your centuries years old deep rooted hatred which singlehandedly kept you alive as an undead person

also reminder he did all that while he was only 14 years old. this is all things he did in less than a year.

this is tsuna's resume during the course of less than a year of proper mafia business.

so, you know. the next time he goes "i just want my friends and i to be safe and happy and live in peace. 🥺🥺🥺 please don't make me fight you to make it happen? 👉🏽👈🏽🥺👉🏽👈🏽🥺👉🏽👈🏽🥺"

just maybe, consider listening to him

[ambwosialive]

on gabe: ghosts, grief, and wants.

before i get started: this is all my opinion! i've been into n2n since 2010 so i've had a lot of time to think about this (thank you dunmar warehouse thank you) the thing that those who are pro-poltergeist/demon/ghost/etc gabe don't consider, i think, is that i'm alive tells us everything that we need to know.

he is not just want diana wants him to be. he's what natalie wants him to be, he's what dan wants him to be, he's even what dr. madden wants him to be.

one of the reasons why he takes the melody in superboy and the invisible girl is (aside from the absolute juiciness narratively of her brother that she's singing about overshadowing her in her own song about him overshadows her) because natalie in that moment wants to feel validated, like she's correct in assuming that gabe Is More Acknowledged Than Her and in fact Is An Asshole, which is why he's smiling and bragging so much. (in my opinion!!!)

(as far as the text goes it is widely interpreted that) he isn't able to be seen by dan for most of the show, because that's exactly what he wants him to be: invisible. not there. going off of this texted based interpretation it can be argued that the reason why he sees him at the end (other than the acknowledgement of grief as a larger symbol and made into a tangible form) is because some part deep inside of him wants someone at that moment; diana is gone, natalie is too. he wants to feel held, so he gets held. in the case he can see and hear him and he is just ignoring him this changes. (in my opinion!!!)

dr. madden knows him as a baby who died, which is why in make up your mind / catch me i'm falling he's cradling himself in his mother's lap, why his voice becomes more childlike. (in my opinion!!!)

the problem is we are trying to define an abstract concept in simple terms, which is just not possible. not only is gabe a symbol of grief, he very much is a hallucination of diana's, and tends to side with her for that reason. (in just another day, diana is talking about how beautiful the day is, and the only one who agrees with her is gabe- "birds are singing, things are growing", etc.)

and then, of course:

guys, that's the point.

poltergeist? ghost? hallucination? symbol of grief? abstract? that's the point. we aren't supposed to know what gabe is. it's paradoxical. "what you want me to be / your worst fear", "i'll hurt you / i'll heal you", "your wish, your dream come true / your darkest nightmare too". that's how grief is. you don't know exactly what it is. is it love without a place to go? is it anger for losing them? anger at yourself for letting them be lost? gabe can be more than one thing.

especially with theatre! every gabe is going to be different! aaron's gabe is different than jack's gabe is different than kyle dean massey's gabe is different than a community theatre somewhere's gabe! that's the point! some gabes may play him as the all american football throwing jock, some may play him as an evil poltergeist, some may play him as a whiny child who needs his mom. that's the point! the interpretation means what it means to you and how you see it! he means what he means to you! we can discuss all day long about what is the objectively correct opinion on who or what gabe is (i am guilty of this. look at the previous paragraphs), but at the end of the day…

he is what YOU want him to be.

[legotwink08]

the way dan screams diana! during i’m alive [reprise] fucking GETS ME. EVERY TIME. particularly in jamie parker’s rendition because yes he might sound a little like a muppet but it’s so full of fear and grief and anger and panic and GOD we just watched this man clean up his wife’s blood and stand by her and do his absolute best and now he is just so terrified for her oh my god.

[curiouslymyown]

Gabe singing it only hurts when I think and so whenever Diana asks for his opinion he looks almost confused because he is a part of her and therefore cannot form his own thoughts

[sondheim-girly]

Ok well now I need a fucking cast recording of the west end n2n if for no other reason then because I need to inject jack Wolfes im alive into my blood stream

[youremysputnik]

ignore the fact these are horrible screenshots but has anyone talked about gabe’s huge smile when natalie starts going through the pills?

[attentiondealer]

for your consideration: dead boy detectives where everything is the same except the gloves edwin (left) and charles (right) wear are these vivienne westwood ones

[peace-hunter]

Oh noooo!! Orion Optimus looking at the ghosts that are mentoring him fade away and thinking about D-16 Megatron and he must be thinking about how he keeps making pushing mechs away with his recklessness and loud mouth

god i love when people get things from my art i hadn't even thought about <3

but yes!! you are so right!!! i didn't call too much attention to it because i didn't think it was particular subtle but another reason OP lashed out at the Primes was because he was getting uncomfortably reminded of things Dee used to say to him Before

and honestly?? he's still grieving Dee! he's still hurt and upset at losing his best friend! and he still believes Dee losing it was partially because of him. if he hadn't been so reckless, if he hadn't dragged Dee everywhere, if he hadn't pushed him so much, if he had just "stayed on protocol" maybe he would still have his best friend.

so the Primes unknowingly echoing the very same things he feels are the reason he lost Dee plus the ever growing fear he's going to feel miserably at the task he was given make him lash out in anger and say things he never would've otherwise. it's pain and fear disguised as anger that make him snap like that, not him truly being resentful of their input.

but i hadn't even thought about him being afraid of also pushing the Primes away like he did to Dee! but it makes so much sense now that you've said it!

and in a way, now he's probably afraid he's being even more unfair with the Primes that he was with Dee. at least Dee had the option to leave. at least Dee made it clear he could always cut ties with orion if pushed far enough. but the Primes are bound to him.

their options are to be with him or go back to the Allspark and be cut off from the world. and even then, their sense of duty would probably not allow them to stop trying to help him, if not for him then for their people who they already failed once.

and it's as relieving as it is horrifying to him.

because on one hand he can't help but find some guilty comfort in that at least he can never lose them. everyone else may come and go but at least they will always be with him.

but on the other he's terrified they'll grow to resent him for it. that they'll start seeing it (him) as a burden, a duty they're all but shackled to. that they'll want to leave but unlike Dee they won't be able to. that he'll push them away too but they'll choke on the leash connecting them to him.

he's sooo fine and normal about it i prommy :)

haunted au

[raviollies]

First session went great