#Ari's response

[ant1quarian]

yknow what he seems trustworthy (lie) i think we should open the door

[ It seems you may have died! Or not. Who knows? ]

[doctorwhoisadhd]

i think blaseball ruined my perception of what a pun is if its sports related someone just sent a photo of some softball (?) players to a groupchat im in like WHY ARE THEY IN A CAGE and i immediately said "got caught stealing" because i mean its right there and the feedback is that this was an A+ joke (high praise from them). like. what? that was nothing?

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

this will probably be my final semester at my current uni before switching to something new… so i’m gonna try to make the most of it (read: survive it) by building up a steady routine….. write + study a little every day, read a book or a fic every day……. it’s gonna be really hard for me but i’m gonna try!!!!!! :’3

[thechills]

“I think we were doing this dance where we’re trying to keep everything simultaneously grounded and up in the clouds.”

- “Ari Aster on his new film Midsommar: ‘I keep telling people I want it to be confusing’” by Alyssa Wilkinson

[scorchedmazes]

Idk if ur ok with chain messages but if u are I have this

✨ Put 5 songs you listen to, post it, then send this ask to 10 of your mutuals

tysm for the tag!!

1. washing machine heart- mitski

2. hot to go- chappell roan

3. i want you to love me- fiona apple

4. abstract (psychopomp)- hozier

5. half return- adrianne lenker

no obligation to post ofc but: @star-burrry @hope92100 @astyrial @chaosreinbrothered @petrichor-idyllic @unrealisticallyyours @unsmokedroses @winged-bat @wyrcan @bri-the-fando-meister @elianglader

[obeetlebeetle]

when is honor not honorable? when it is prescribed by a system of nobility that perpetuates itself through the destruction of its subjects. 

rue watched hob sit there bleeding, arrows in his back, waiting until they nearly pierced his lung to remove them -- all for the honor of the goblin court. for the courts. for the system that stole rue as a child and twisted them into a pleasing shape, a desired doll. for the system that has used hob’s body on the field of battle and rue’s body in the field of politics to the benefit of the system, not the bodies being used.

rue spent every interaction with hob this episode saying, Are you okay? Are you hurt? Does anything about your life of service actually make you happy? Are you ever happy? Will you ever let yourself be happy? I hope you will. I hope you find happiness. I wish it was with me.

and then at the very end hob goes, I was miserable until you held me.

hes finally able to say it but the issue is, rue never needed to be told that hob loves them. they clocked it. they know he wants them. so finally learning how hob feels, that doesn’t change anything. what they were really saying is, Can you admit that service makes you unhappy? Are you capable of prioritizing desire? I am offering you devotion.

as long as hob pursues honor as prescribed by the court system, as long as he plays the political game, he can never love anyone. least of all rue; rue who has been so damaged by their obligation to the court of wonder for so long. rue who has chosen to use all their power to dissolve political bonds and facilitate emotional ones, at the hope of destabilizing the system. rue who has finally revealed themselves as both a monster and a dissident, prompted by their love for hob, in a show of force -- they are finally rebelling, openly, against the court and the system that tried to cannibalize them. and they’re watching as hob commits himself more deeply to the goblin court, putting his body in their hands for both battle and marriage.

rue tries tirelessly to get hob to answer this question. You are unhappy; what is it for? Tell me so I can understand. and hob’s response is, I choose to be unhappy because otherwise I would be wrong. 

his defense of the court system is that it tells him what to do. he believes himself to be so fundamentally incorrect that his wants, desires, and instincts cannot guide him -- the only way to be a good man is to serve something greater than himself. this belief, as we can see in his conversations with boil and blemish, has been reinforced through scorn and humiliation. 

hob says, I choose this unhappy life because it is right to serve. I know that it is right to serve because those in power tell me what is right. I know I am wrong because they tell me I am wrong.

upon learning that rue dissolved the marriage between apollo and grabalba, the thing that hurts him the most is the feeling of being used by rue. of being taken for a fool and manipulated in a political game, of falling in love with someone that doesn’t care about him. but even as this misinterpretation wounds him, he tries to defend his service to the goblin court.

and all rue ever wanted was to show him that his life of service is just a matter of being used, being taken, loving those who do not love you but only what you do for them. they wanted him to see that the pain he feels at the perception of  being manipulated by rue is a pain he has felt at the hands of the court system for far longer than they have known each other. 

hob’s real answer can be found in both what he has said and what he’s unwilling to say. For what? Nothing. Not even love. so rue offers hob what the court system has always denied him.

honor, service, obligation, duty -- everything hob has hinged his identity on and everything he ever believed to be good, to make him good -- are tools, not ideals. the court system designed fealty so that it would be easier to exploit people like hob and rue, people that feel like monsters, people who are empty and need to be filled. rue sees that hob believes himself to be a monster, and they aren’t asking him to change that. they know that monsters will always know themselves to be monsters. instead, they are trying to convince hob that being good is not what he thinks it is, when it’s being defined by the court system.

when is a monster not a monster? when you love it. when what is monstrous is worth loving. in their last attempt to wrest hob from the court system, rue tells him they love him, and in the same breath they tell him that love and honor are not the same. rue tells him that they are a monster. that in seeing him, they finally realized that being monstrous isn't being damaged; the damage comes from elsewhere. so they ask him to see them outside the moral structure that has been imposed on him and that he imposes on all others. they ask him to see the ways in which that structure and the system that created it have wounded them for being monstrous.

in doing so, hob would have to acknowledge his own wounds. he would have to acknowledge that he has been wounded for a very long time. that is what he has been resisting; if at any point he had acknowledged his wounds, he would have needed to care for them, and hob is not equipped to care for himself. care is not something afforded via lines of support in the court system; care was never part of the conversation. but when rue speaks of love, and divests it of honor, they offer, instead, care.

this is a love story.

[arieslost]

for ✨research purposes✨, what subjects do u think lando would get tattooed and where? (ex. checkered flags on his wrist) definitely don’t have something in the works about tattoo artist!lando…

anyway i would love to hear ur thoughts!!

[bigtreefest]

who do you picture welcoming you home with a big comforting casserole? 🥺 not lloyd probably but maybe he was a good ol midwestern boy before he went full psycho

Brandy bean! Thank you for this ask! I love fantasizing about a domestic life that I won’t see for a long time😅

I also love the thought of Lloyd being a midwestern boy who absolutely had to get outta there, bc same, bestie. I wanna go back near a cost with my northeastern-accented kinfolk, ya feel me? Yeah, Lloyd would.

Anyway, back to casseroles. I think a few different babes would cook casseroles for different reasons.

Ransom: When you first got together, you insisted there were several life skills he needed to develop for himself: washing laundry, changing a tire, and most importantly, cooking. It didn’t have to be anything fancy, just survivable and edible. When he found out that you could make a decent meal just by dumping a bunch of things in a dish and setting them in the oven for nearly an hour to forget while they cooked, this was essentially the only option for him. Why put in all the extra effort to make separate entrees and side dishes when this minimal effort creates something almost as good?🤷🏻‍♂️<- peep blue sweater Ran

Steve: he not only views food as sustenance, but as a vessel for memories and moods. He knows how cozy a warm meal can be, especially on a rainy or rough day. It might not be the healthiest, but it requires such little brain power to both make and consume, that it’s perfect. The two of you can sit on a couch with your bowls, sitting close wearing sweats, and just put most of your focus on each other. 🥰

Jake: His mom sent him a recipe on Facebook, thinking it was weird and ridiculous, but Jake actually thought it looked really good. He loves trying new things in the kitchen when he has the time. And for some reason, that flavor combination really caught his interest, so that’ll be your surprise dinner tonight.

Andy: He literally doesn’t know how to do much else cooking-wise besides grilling a steak, so this is the comfort zone where he thrives. One. Singular. Casserole. “Because it’s good. What else could you want?” Like, yes, nice gesture, but like, you definitely get a little sick of it, leading the two of you getting cooking classes (95% for his sake)

Ari: I…don’t think he’ll want to make a casserole. You need comfort food? He’s got either a nice meal done, or he’s ordering in. Whatever you want, not casserole dish slop (he insists that statement isn’t meant to be rude). Perhaps if you really want it, he’ll heat up the casserole in the freezer that your mom left behind the last time you visited.

[igarbagecannoteven]

hi!! just read your cake at the craft store fic and thought I'd introduce myself on here :) you're a talented writer and seem like a lovely person!

oh my gosh thank you so much! that's so sweet of you 🥰i'm so glad you enjoyed my work! (and thank you so much for the lovely comment on ao3!) also love your handles on both ao3 and here, i'm a big fan of herons myself 😊

[ant1quarian]

Regarding Cryptidverse: What are wanderers and witherborn?

-⭐

Wanderers are a species born to travel! They're a personal creation. Basically they toe the line between reality and not reality- capable of walking placidly across the knife's perilous edge into any other realm or entering it upon will without any repercussions.

They're also. Very, very dangerous. But in a different way. Not violent, per se- well. Not aggressive. Not entirely. It's a cold kind of danger. The icy kind- the figures you see in the mist or the flashes of something you see in the corners of your vision. They most likely wander along the edges of cryptid-filled woods, waiting for someone to pull into.

They're the reason you begin to feel unnerved and uncomfortable when you're walking along a track at night.

They're the reason the temperature may drop suddenly or you feel like something is watching you.

... They're the glowing eyes you see from the darkness of the forest- waiting. Always waiting.

And whatever you do, don't run.

Witherborn are a minecraft-based species! They're tall, highly territorial species with very long and sharp tails. Take Killer, for example:

They're also capable of levitation and known for being very, very dangerous. They also have extra eyes that they can open up during times where they need 'em

'S nice to meet you, ⭐ Anon!!

[officialpenisenvy]

rpf is gaslighting me i need to periodically remind myself that young jimmy page was not pretty

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

my brother just gave his take on the gojo dog lover incident by saying that . gojo is a cat boy who likes dogs. and geto is a dog boy who likes cats. and i think he might be onto something idk

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

ooh maybe F1 for Ari/Josie :D?

[prompts]

Ari.exe has stopped working

[scorchedmazes]

in your opinion when’s the moment(s) thomas fell for minho? same ab minho for tom?

MMMMMMM OK OK

-minho fell for thomas during this:

-thomas fell for minho during this:

alternatives:

[arolesbianism]

Time for more eternal gales isat au, this time featuring Sier as Isabeau, creating a sprite I can never use next to Aris’ because despite my best efforts it would make them look tall