#something was clearly wrong

[ihavesomejays]

text transcription:

Many springs ago, I perceived a sea of flowers upon a lake. I thought to myself that those fleeting colors held indescribable beauty.

The next time I perceived those colors was many years later, when the medic’s tent had blinded me to all but red. The radiance of that shining star was lost on my eyes.

Now, my eyes no longer perceive the subtleties in the colors around me.

But I am content.

For I can now see the most brilliant colors in my universe.

anyways yeah why did they fucking do that to jiaoqiu bro

the planning for this experimentalish comic is under keep reading

[welcometogrouchland]

Disgustingly messy and crusty sketch dump but I couldn't get my own terrible theory out of my head and ended up making a bunch of sketches about it. Also at the end a bonus dickbats and Damian doodle bc I was reading an issue of their Batman and Robin run (IDs in Alt)

[inkskinned]

it mattered because when my brother asked me what if this is the happiest you'll ever be? the best you'll ever get? the thing i felt was fear, not peace. everybody thought you were so perfect for me. even i thought you were "helping me grow". i had to challenge every internal clock. make myself more thoughtful, more kind, more beautiful.

i told my therapist it was good because i like the changes i made and there's something so strong about saying i did that. the problem is that i can like the difference all i want, but i changed for you. something akin to getting your name tattooed, all my progress is stamped with fuck you.

it was the happiest i'd ever been and also the best i'd ever gotten. i would still get in the car and think what the fuck just happened.

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

not enough discussion about the gavins' complicated relationship with feminine-coded/beauty products, i don't think.

[mettywiththenotes]

Listen the way tiny Ochako is in a crowd cheering and then turns around to see tiny Toga crying reminds me of that part in the S6 ending where Ochako is in a crowd and she turns around to see Toga's handkerchief floating in the air

[ohtori-dropout]

If you saw this 5 seconds ago when it had a cropping issue no you didn’t

[stormsandskies]

Small town William Wisp who knows the entire town and the entire town knows him, so when the little boy who used to run around the small park and through the fields with his friends changes overnight they notice. They notice his skin turn pale, not a typical winter pale that comes from lack of sunlight and being indoors all the time, but the pale that leaves barely a flush to the skin as if his heart isn’t beating like it once was. They notice his lack of energy, how little he goes outside now, they notice his heavy black hoodie even in the southern heat.

At first, they assume he is sick, after all the Wisp parents look stressed and concerned more often than not. It doesn’t help when the school year rolls around and people find out he isn’t going to the school in the town and is instead going to the city

They see absolutely nothing of William after that, but the Wisp parents look beyond stressed constantly watching the news the moment a mention of an attack on Rockfell is made. They understand it must be stressful to know your kid could be out on the street when the attack occurred. Must be scary to think they’re out with friends when some villain and superhero come tumbling through the coffee shop wall. they don’t know the real reason, don’t know they’re watching their youngest son almost die again fighting the villain of the week.

One day after a trip to the city to see their sons the Wisps come back visibly shaken, as though something is wrong, Mrs.Wisp will not stop crying and her husband stands next to her side attempting to help but clearly on the verge of tears as well.

Throughout these two years, strange things had been happening around town, kids reporting they saw strange creatures walking around town, people claiming they saw some sort of glowing blue wisp floating around, and sights of horrific monsters just standing at the edge of the forest surrounding the town.

Then a while after the Wisps leave again and this time they do not come back before their town is ordered to evacuate. People pack up as quickly as possible, as if in a trance.

When they return it’s hard to miss the damage in the area. Despite the work done by the heroes to restore the town blood stains a clearing close by, the sign is scorched, and the body bags, so many line the streets as they work to identify and return the bodies to their families. William looks different, way different to the boy who left. His dark hair is streaked with white, his once brown eyes a shocking blue, a slightly jagged scar runs down the middle of his face and neck, more dot his arms and legs, he seems to float when he moves, and occasionally a small blue wisp will dart around him.

So the town notices and knows that the little boy they knew is changed forever, they also know that he saved the world with the other teens who stand beside him, just as scarred, and they know for certain they hate the so-called heroes who did this to these kids, to the boy who played tag with their kids, to the boy who made sure to say hello to everyone at the church cookout, to his friends that he cares about so deeply.

This small town knew an energetic kid and awkward teenager, now they know a still awkward but more confident almost adult, they knew a 15-year-old who disappeared for two years, now they know a 17-year-old who came back different, they knew William Wisp, now they know The Whisperer.

[rockafirevevo]

found quite possibly the scariest arcade game ever. polybius has nothing on Funny Dog

[chaoticlad]

It’s that time again‼️ (the cringy) Doodle dump‼️‼️‼️‼️

Crappost

[cbrownjc]

Alice is in her third trimester

I've seen a few comments about Daniel possibly cheating on Alice with Armand and I'm kinda like . . . you're assuming that Daniel or Armand -- who regularly, at least in the books, would be in situations where Armand would sit in a chair and watch Daniel have sex with other people -- would themselves view that as cheating. Because I don't think they would've. (At the very least, not younger Daniel.)

It's been talked about, more than once, about how the vampires in this universe are inherently polyamorous. I don't think Armand would care at all about sharing Daniel with another lover. And Daniel, being entangled with Armand (and quite possibly Louis as well) for so long might have himself become not overly concerned with such a thing.

I think Alice is the only one who would have cared that Daniel was sleeping with someone else (if she ever found out), and would have seen it that way. But I, personally, can see Armand and younger Daniel not caring about that view of things in the slightest . . . particularly because they were the ones who were together initially anyway. And that Daniel probably first ever got together with Alice during one of Daniel's running away periods.

Because the main thing that led to their splits sometimes, i.e. Daniel running away, was because Armand's refusal to make Daniel a vampire. Other than that, though? Nothing else in the relationship between them was a problem, particularly for Daniel. And I think that is going to be true wrt the show's version of events. Still being with his vampire lover, even after he may have gotten married? Don't think it is at all outside of possibility -- or that Daniel would have any guilt about it.

And THAT piece of information -- that the only problem he had with the relationship with Armand is that Armand wouldn't turn him -- is going to be the info that Daniel, in the present, likely won't want to face about himself IMO.

Daniel is clearly accepting of the fact that he was a shit father and a terrible husband. But accepting the possible true reason behind all of that?

I said it last year, and I'll say it again -- the revelation about the Devil's Minion that's going to hit Daniel the hardest is very likely going to be the one that reveals he has ZERO moral high ground when it comes to these vampires.

At the moment, Daniel can tell himself that he asked Louis for the Dark Gift because he thought Louis was wasting it. But that excuse is not going to work when it comes to the years and years he asked and wanted Armand to turn him.

That Armand refused to break his vow to never bring another into The Blood -- that is what ended up being what drove them apart. Not any moral conscious Daniel ever had, or grew, about being with Armand at all. Not even whatever transpired regarding Daniel and Alice (and Daniel getting her pregnant likely not just once, but twice, never mind marrying her.)

If Armand had decided to break his vow back then, then IMO, Daniel would have accepted. Alice or no Alice. Kids or no kids. Because while Daniel in the present has nice, even sincerely heartfelt memories about Alice? His past self was clearly emotionally checked out of whatever relationship he had with her by the time of that pregnancy announcement in 1985.

1985. The same year when, in the books, Armand finally did break his vow and turn Daniel, on Halloween. And this is what Daniel had to say about it when Armand finally decided to turn him:

"But don't you see," Daniel said, "all human decisions are made like this. Do you think the mother knows what will happen to the child in her womb? Dear God, we are lost, I tell you. What does it matter if you give it to me and it's wrong! There is no wrong! There is only desperation, and I would have it! I want to live forever with you."

As long as Daniel held any knowledge of not only vampires but of Armand specifically, this is what he would think, what he would always want. And that, IMO, is why he was emotionally checked out when Alice announced that pregnancy. Because, at that point in time, he still held the knowledge, of not just vampires, but Armand himself.

And they were still very much entangled with each other at that time IMO. Still lovers.

My theory is that it isn't Daniel kicking his drug habit that had him "getting his shit together." Well, okay, he did kick a drug habit, but the drug in question was actually Armand's blood. Not to mention Armand himself.

And I think that event happened sometime around when Alice was in her third trimester. (Hence, the name of that track listing).

. . . .

I'm also beginning to wonder if Armand actually was the one who repressed/blocked Daniel's memories of him, or if it was someone else. No, I don't think Louis was the one who did it, (or Lestat either btw), and Armand doing it does make the most sense, given he clearly is not harboring any happy thoughts about Alice, and Daniel splitting from him for her. But a day or so before the new clip came out, @faerywhimsy made a comment to me about who could have also done it, given a comment I made elsewhere about the timeline length Daniel and Armand were apart, and what book-event that matches up with and well . . . .

That person being the one who took Daniel's memories not only tracks wrt the timeline Armand and Daniel spend apart, but it would also track when it comes to the relationship Armand has with that person too. That's all I'm saying . . .

. . . .

Anyway, yeah. I think it was around Alice's third trimester when Armand and Daniel actually split for good. Which, depending on when she got pregnant could conceivably be around towards the end of 1985. Though, more possibly, go over into 1986. But I think that is why there is actually a track named that when it comes to the score for Season 2. Because that time period became a significant one. The time when Daniel actually "got his shit together."

And maybe why, in the present, he can have such love and loving thoughts about Alice. Because the reasons for his being emotionally checked out were no longer at the forefront of his mind for so long anymore (even if he still ended up being a shitty husband and father still -- with Alice as his ex and his kids not speaking to him -- without them).

[mylordshesacactus]

Do you ever just really think about what having Aylin and Isobel in camp must have been like though. Like. Just in general. On a daily basis.

[huitandahalf]

I know that we got plenty of options as to how everything with the Ender King is going to go down, but a thought that has not left my mind was the idea of the Ender King downing qPhil in some way and taking him away. Which means there would be a chat message for all to see :)

For example :)

[cinnamonsikwate]

"why couldn't shuro have just been honest about what he felt with laios and falin it's not that hard" are you. are you White

[isagrimorie]

In season 2 Hotch is suspicious and worried that ‘Is that Legal’ Emily Prentiss is a pawn Strauss placed in the BAU.

Prentiss is the last person troubled by Elle Greenaway's 'questionable' shooting. Spies are built with moral ambiguities. But Hotch didn't know that.

(Pre-London Emily tried to reset her life. And succeeded before Ian Doyle re-entered her life. Post-London!Emily realized and learned she could 'live' with her moral ambiguities.)

[hunybody]

people just invent childhood traumas for steve and i can’t even blame them because 1: he literally does not have a canon backstory and 2: there is so clearly something wrong with him

[atopvisenyashill]

i was thinking more about characters Performing Gender, but not necessarily Transgressing Gender. I wound up focusing on Ned and Sansa bc I feel like I understand them the most but-

Sansa as a hostage is imo the most obvious (bc it’s so well done) moment of someone clearly Performing Gender but not being transgressive in that performance. Which isn’t to say it’s not a complicated performance; it’s a fine line Sansa walks between weaponizing her gender to protect herself without seeming too fake. She’s trying to placate the Lannisters by playing the perfect, dedicated, air headed betrothed because it’s the only defense she has - if she outwardly rebels, she will be punished in a likely violent and/or sexual way (which isn’t even conjecture - when she says “or maybe he’ll give me yours” Joffrey has her struck with an armored hand). She’s not quite successful in being convincing but that’s because it’s a rather extreme situation; despite no one believing her, she does make herself seem meek and stupid enough that no one suspects she’s plotting to escape with Dontos until she’s well away from KL. The fact that she even has Dontos to confide in is because of Sansa’s relationship with gender! When she saves him, she covers her rebellious slip by playing up Joffrey’s intelligence & his role as King; she reaches for “tools” of her gender AND of ~proper manhood~ to save a life and herself from another beating. Her retreats into the godswood and silence are very much Sansa attempting to recharge from these draining interactions, the same way a knight would need to stop and eat and rest after a fight. She is fighting, constantly, by forcing herself to stay within the narrow confines of a specific type of gender performance as a way of shielding herself from harm.

Ned yelling at Cat is another big one, and I’ve seen the scene referred to as Ned using his patriarchal power to scare Cat, which is a great description. It feels like a Performance because Ned is putting on this terrifying Lord Stark mask in an attempt to get Catelyn to stop asking about Jon (and Lyanna). This is not how he usually acts with those he loves! When Ned is with His People, he is welcoming of questions, curiosity, emotion, even transgressive thought (to a point! the idea that Ned is a feminist because he lets Arya learn to fight is Not accurate but you can’t deny he allows significantly more flexibility wrt gender expression than most of the fathers we meet in this series. the bar is in hell tho). Yet when Cat asks him about Jon’s mother, Ned scares her so well she stops asking & still remembers the moment bitterly over a decade later. And if that snippet we see through Bran’s eyes of Ned praying that Cat will forgive him does come after she asks (like it’s suspected), it’s clear not only that this is a performance he’s putting on & weaponizing against Cat, it’s one he does not like using as a weapon against someone he is close to. After using the power his gender gives him to cause harm, he retreats to the godswood and silence to pray and rest, much like Sansa. A spiritual cleanse, the way a soldier may pray after battle, to reset and reconnect Being A Proper Man to Being A Kind Man.

I think there’s something interesting in that two of the characters most widely defined by how well they adhere to Westerosi gender norms both dislike feeling like they had to weaponize their gender. They are exhausted by the performance, because it’s a performance. This isn’t Sansa getting excited over tourneys, or Ned teaching his sons to fight; it’s toxic masculinity, it’s structural misogyny. It’s something they’re good at, excel at, and connected to something they enjoy but when it’s paired with violence, whether done by Ned or done to Sansa, it crosses over in their minds from an innate part of themselves (The Gender) to a performance necessary due to survival (The Gender Role). And that after these performances, both retreat to nature & god as a way of resting and cleansing from the experience.