#Children Of The Lens

[thehealingsystem]

if you ever wonder why I don't interact with the traumagenic community as a traumagenic system this is why

[revelry-in-severity]

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

Hey, you know what? The song "Servant of Evil" (Rin/Len/Mothy) strangely started to suit Stan and Ford (Because when people made AMVs it was with Mabel and Dipper, but for our elderly twins, this song fits much better

Yes, we have a twin swap, we have twins who did bad things, Stan defended Ford when they were children… And they were separated (Twice, once after Stan was thrown out by his father, and the second time when Ford fell into the portal)

But seriously, this song suits them better than Mabel and Dipper

And let's face it, Ford is one of the greatest Disney princesses (After Marco Diaz)

Now that I have your attention:

---------------------------------

I know, earlier than usual, but because I was drawing, but then someone from my family distracted me and well, then I didn't feel like drawing anymore, so why not use the time for posts with likes for collections?

So remember about the collections at the top

[super-paper]

afotaro is the elephant's foot of toxic old man yaoi but that's not gonna stop me from memeing on it, y'know, as a coping mechanism.

[vivienne-joi]

[adhdtsukasa]

WXS OCHAME KINOU FINALLY RELEASED OFFICIALLY and i wanna ramble about the line distribution because it killed my grandma and it's becoming one of my favorite wxs covers all time. (at first i just wanted to talk about the emu solo line... but oh well...)

(the credit is on the screens, but the video belongs to yann__94 on yt!)

obviously rui got this line, it couldn't be any other way!! after all, this precisely *is* what rui's role mainly is. he's the stage director, the one who's supposed to make everything work well — and it only intensifies after backlight lens flare, where it was recognized even further from what i've seen. because i didn't watch the entirety of it yet. i'm waiting for my summer break to catch up on events

wonderland sekai!!! that sounds like a sole definition of wonderlands sekai to me. (and is only a furthermore proof why ochame kinou is so wxs coded that it even sounds like a wxs comm)

and this is what i wanted to talk about from the very beginning — because this is so cuteeee..... "is your birthday ahead" and they're releasing it just ten days before tsukasa's birthday? Hey. emu being the one who sing this line just adds to the adorableness because i'm not saying that nene and rui wouldn't do so, but combined with the way emu sings just makes me see the mental image of emu dragging tsukasa with her and just going "cmon cmon tsukasakun it's your birthday soon we need to have fun". which is honestly very accurate i think. she's the designated sun of the wxs, after all

but maybe i'm just biased because i love platonic emukasa as i already said countless of times 🫶🫶

THIS LINE ON THE OTHER HAND MAKES ME SO SAD and i don't call me a sadkaser because this is not meant to be, maybe i'm just reaching too much because i'm too kidkasa pilled from writing a thing for his birthday, but,,, yeah, it screams dazzling to me. because that's how tsukasa was as a kid, right? if you behave well and let them see you're the strong one, you'll be happy — but you still need to have faith that tomorrow will be a better day.

again, that only makes this cover releasing right before tsukasa's birthday even more foul lol.

and i don't have much to say about this line... i'm just glad to see that emu got to still have her dreamer motif here. makes me very happy.

and last but not least, polysho ruined lives

[queen0fm0nsterz]

I was thinking about the old LN1 character bios and remembered the line about the Twins being "born to be chefs". Assuming their not native to Nowhere, this would mean they had some violent tendencies before becoming residents, like it was their destiny.

This then made think about the end of tson ep 3 where Otto says the something like "Our world isn't the only world, let alone the predominant one".

All this made me realize that the worlds other than Nowhere may have been created by it (The Nowhere is implied to be sentient in it's own right) specifically to create concepts and injustices that could be used to warp and traumatize children, turning them into visitors and then into residents.

Thoughts?

Alright so this is a great question that I think leads to a much larger discussion about how the Nowhere operates. I would like to hear what other peeps think as well.

So, starting from the Chefs. Personally I always assumed that they are part of that group of characters who are from the Nowhere because of the way their description is worded (and also their baby pictures... this one is so cute lowkey...)

--- But following your train of thought: considering what we know of the Nowhere, it seems to amplify certain characteristics of a person, usually the bad ones. Two kids who are a bit propense to get into fights in the waking world may very well become blood thirsty maniacs in the Nowhere.

Interestingly, the modification of traits does not only apply to personality but also the body -- and usually, the physical changes are in relation back to said traits. For example, the Teacher - someone who is known to be controlling - can extend her neck infinitely to look everywhere and have the ability to blink removed to make sure she's always watching. The Doctor, a perfectionist with tons of authority, is always looking down on people while also growing enormous to match his ego. So on and so forth, you can follow this reasoning for a large number of the Residents we meet.

I think other timelines derivating from the Nowhere is definitely a possibility, as we don't know much of how the universes work there.

The general theory of a multiverse irl is that no timeline has any specific weight or importance over others; they are all parallel no matter how different, with no timeline being "the real one". This is if we view the Nowhere under the lens of it being a separate dimension. In TSON, the Nowhere is kind of implied to be sucking the people most vulnerable to it right in, so perhaps the idea Otto has of it the predominant world stems from the fact that he can't explain his fascination with it... or from a real, genuine desire to somehow "return" to the original land, if that's where the other timelines originated from.

HOWEVER, I would like to offer an alternative perspective on this --- based on what I found out during my research on the Ladies. Yup we're going there again

Rather than the characters themselves, this time I'm going to refer to a symbolism that is very prominent in their lore: Buddhism. More specifically the references to the six planes of existance, and how those can be tied back to Little Nights in a loose way. As stated in this site:

" The six realms of rebirth are a schema in which beings are reborn according to the kind of life they lived. [...] The animal realm, in which inhabitants are driven by basic needs, is one of the three “lower” realms. The other two are the hell realm, a place of constant suffering and torment, and the realm of the hungry ghosts, grasping beings who are never satisfied. The three “higher” realms are the human realm [...] the demigod realm [...] and the god realm, where beings enjoy a life of pleasure. It’s important to note that some Buddhists view the realms as literally real, while others interpret them psychologically as metaphors for the emotional states of the human condition. "

(Click on the link to read the whole thing; I only highlighted the parts I think are relevant to this conversation :] )

What I believe specifically relates back to the Nowhere are the three lower realms, from which the place itself may be loosely inspired by because of how its inhabitants are described.

All of these are things we see in Little Nights from various Residents, depending on the social class and place. It is important to note that while these realms are placed in different hierarchies due to quality of life, they all cohexist together without necessarily being more important than each other as they all have the same purpose in the end.

If the worlds of Little Nights operate in a similar way, then what we're looking at is not really a case of dimension hopping, but rather a passage from a plane of existance to the next. A forced one at that, at least in the case of Noone.

Now, considering Otto's assumption, the idea of the Nowhere being a predominant realm only popped up because he was trying to wrap his head around it and how Noone felt, but to tell you the truth, it is a rather baseless assumption considering he's never been there and is only experiencing it in a very limited way. However... considering how many children from different places in time and space have experienced the Nowhere, sometimes even simultaneously, I wouldn't say that it's completely wrong to assume that the place might be the "original plane of existance".

Now. Reflecting on what you said at the very end, I would like to ask a question back: do you think the Nowhere is, hypothetically, only capable of bringing out the worst in people inherently? Or is it only acting this way because humanity itself is more easily conditioned to fall victim to their bad traits?

I've been recently thinking about it because of the Maw. The writer of Little Nightmares, Mr. Mervik, has stated multiple times over the years that the place has not always been the way that it is; at the same time, he also said that it was not man made, but rather created by collective hunger/desire to be fed. These two things don't make sense together unless you assume the Maw was not originally born for the Guests and the whole cannibal business, but rather from a desire of shelter. A need to be fed. Which is not inherently a bad thing -- and it would explain why the structure itself is so largely built to house so many people, and why children still feel relatively safe in it to this day.

So I find myself thinking that perhaps, the Maw degenerated overtime because the people inside of it (cough its leaders cough) did. And if this is the case for the Maw, who's to say it's not the same for other places? The Nest, for example? The School, the Hospital... etc. But. It is also true that the creatures who inhabit the Nowhere (the Ferryman, the North Wind, the Flesh...) all seem to have their own interests and destructive amusement more at heart than anything. If these creatures are what move the large of the Nowhere (which I guess they are considering the eye symbol is all over the goddman place), then the human will can't really do much.

That being said, I am wondering currently if it could be possible for the Nowhere to bring out something good from a person in the right situation. At the same time, the hopes are incredibly slim. Nonexistent, actually, but it's nice to think about hypothetics.

[renegadeem]

Band!AU encore!!!

Bahamut SIN, latest single from AVALANCHE.

[pasdetrois]

I still find it so touching that when pressed for their honest opinion, the Powers That Be reveal that Daniil is their favorite protagonist. Two young children attempting to distract themselves from grief and the frightening reality of death, and their favorite is the man whose life ambition is to defeat it. 🥲

[lilacstars15]

yayyyyy Hansel and Gretel!!!!! *evillious jumpscare*

[ssruis]

Sorry to bring up that one tweet but it’s still so funny to me bc like. 1) are you choosing favorite characters off of how attractive you personally find them?? do you just ignore every female character because you don’t find them hot??? 2) are you that incapable of relating to or enjoying a female character. Do you hide behind the “I’m gay” excuse to discard any female character and ignore the misogyny inherent in that action. Like. Lesbians have been having male favorite characters for ages. I think you’re just weird.

[novemberthewriter]

i'm rereading Those Wizard Books bc it's the first time i'm looking at them as a bona fide english major; i been taking in a lot of lit criticism and seeing where i agree and disagree and have my own new viewpoints about how the stories are executed ... and it's funny cuz you'd think people would actually be dissecting them more on a platform like storygraph (where i've chosen to journal my thoughts) but nah it's the same sycophant stuff ... i should not have to be scrolling for ages just to find a handful of other people who agree that, for instance, book 5 is bloated as fuck ... i should not see people indignantly going 'i REFUSE to acknowledge the author! separating art from artist!' when the author's myopia and incurious nature directly affect how these stories are constructed ... i'm not even h8 reading i'm just rereading bc eye know these damn books are gonna come up in my popular fiction class [it's 3 modules dedicated solely to fucking YA lol]. one minute i'll be like 'hmm i see why this was cute when i was 8-11 years old' and the next i'll be like 'it's a reason why i primarily found this cute between 8 and 11 years old' lol.

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

I would like to remind you that Israel is still responsible for providing espionage tools to the government of Bangladesh…

Yes, Israel has additional guilt, let's not forget about it

Now that I have your attention:

[girderednerve]

i have once more Read a Book !

the book was jim morris' cancer factory: industrial chemicals, corporate deception, & the hidden deaths of american workers. this book! is very good! it is primarily about the bladder cancer outbreak associated with the goodyear plant in niagara falls, new york, & which was caused by a chemical called orthotoluedine. goodyear itself is shielded by new york's workers' comp law from any real liability for these exposures & occupational illnesses; instead, a lot of the information that morris relies on comes from suits against dupont, which manufactured the orthotoluedine that goodyear used, & despite clear internal awareness of its carcinogenicity, did not inform its clients, who then failed to protect their workers. fuck dupont! morris also points out that goodyear manufactured polyvinyl chloride (PVC) at that plant, and, along with other PVC manufacturers, colluded to hide the cancer-causing effects of vinyl chloride, a primary ingredient in PVC & the chemical spilled in east palestine, ohio in 2023. the book also discusses other chemical threats to american workers, including, and this was exciting for me personally, silica; it mentions the hawks nest tunnel disaster (widely forgotten now despite being influential in the 30s, and, by some measures, the deadliest industrial disaster in US history) & spends some time on the outbreak of severe silicosis among southern california countertop fabricators, associated with high-silica 'engineered stone' or 'quartz' countertops. i shrieked about that, the coverage is really good although the treatment of hawks nest was very brief & neglected the racial dynamic at play (the workers exposed to silica at hawks nest were primarily migrant black workers from the deep south).

cancer factory spends a lot of time on the regulatory apparatus in place to respond to chemical threats in the workplace, & thoroughly lays out how inadequate they are. OSHA is responsible for setting exposure standards for workplace chemicals, but they have standards for only a tiny fraction—less than one percent!—of chemicals used in american industry, and issue standards extremely slowly. the two major issues it faces, outside of its pathetically tiny budget, are 1) the standard for demonstrating harm for workers is higher than it is for the general public, a problem substantially worsened during the reagan administration but not created by it, and 2) OSHA is obliged to regulate each individual chemical separately, rather than by functional groups, which, if you know anything at all about organic chemistry, is nonsensical on its face. morris spends a good amount of time on the tenure of eula bingham as the head of OSHA during the carter administration; she was the first woman to head the organization & made a lot of reasonable reforms (a cotton dust standard for textile workers!), but could not get a general chemical standard, allowing OSHA to regulate chemicals in blocks instead of individually, through, & then of course much of her good work was undone by reagan appointees.

the part of the book that made me most uncomfortable was morris' attempt to include birth defects in his analysis. i don't especially love the term 'birth defect'—it feels cruel & seems to me to openly devalue disabled people's lives, no?—but i did appreciate attention to women's experiences in the workplace, and i think workplace chemical exposure is an underdiscussed part of reproductive justice. cancer factory mentions women lead workers who were forced to undergo tubal ligations to retain their employment, supposedly because lead is a teratogen. morris points at workers in silicon valley's electronics industry; workers, most of them women, who made those early transistors were exposed to horrifying amounts of lead, benzene, and dangerous solvents, often with disabling effects for their children.

morris points out again & again that we only know that there was an outbreak of bladder cancer & that it should be associated with o-toluedine because the goodyear plant workers were organized with the oil, chemical, & atomic workers (OCAW; now part of united steelworkers), and the union pursued NIOSH investigation and advocated for improved safety and monitoring for employees, present & former. even so, 78 workers got bladder cancer, 3 died of angiosarcoma, and goodyear workers' families experienced bladder cancer and miscarriage as a result of secondary exposure. i kept thinking about unorganized workers in the deep south, cancer alley in louisiana, miners & refinery workers; we don't have meaningful safety enforcement or monitoring for many of these workers. we simply do not know how many of them have been sickened & killed by their employers. there is no political will among people with power to count & prevent these deaths. labor protections for workers are better under the biden administration than the trump administration, but biden's last proposed budget leaves OSHA with a functional budget cut after inflation, and there is no federal heat safety standard for indoor workers. the best we get is marginal improvement, & workers die. i know you know! but it's too big to hold all the same.

anyway it's a good book, it's wide-ranging & interested in a lot of experiences of work in america, & morris presents an intimate (sometimes painfully so!) portrait of workers who were harmed by goodyear & dupont. would recommend

[kiseki-no-robotto-translations]

Tale of Abandonment on a Moonlit Night from Ichika

I translated mini manga from Ichika's Memento book. Please support the author by buying the book. Tap for better quality.