#Cryptic background

[cryptic-underground]

Misc. Stan doodles ft. Some Ford.

Bonus drawing under the cut, (tw; ommetaphobia):

A redraw of a drawing I did when I was 9-10 years old. Wanted to give it another wack at it! Especially since I can draw better now, I'll find the OG in the morning. I'm lazy lol

None eye version:

[dailyloopdeloop]

DAY 24: two roads diverged in a yellow wood

[liquid-sunshines]

Katy perry's hot n cold, but qijiu

He ran away before they could complete the third bow...

[scribbling-dragon]

scott for an au i am working on,, watcher’s nest cafe. if you’re interested (some details under the cut)

- has been working at the watcher’s nest (cafe) for the past four years

- was a fashion/textiles student. now works at the cafe full time

- co-workers with jimmy and pearl, was also co-workers with grian too, but he quit

- is part-siren, though he’s never used his voice to charm someone out of something since he was ten - there’s no need to use it when he can steal something just as easily without it ;)

- has an old pocket watch, something which many people have questioned him over, seeing as said watch is broken and stuck at a particular time. he keeps it in his pocket anyway

[seventh-district]

i’ve just finished season one of TMA, and being someone who’s okay with spoilers is fun because it means i can peruse the wiki and scroll through the tag and i get to become privy to all sorts of weird, wonderful, halfway-out-of-context information that i get to look forward to understanding in the future

like. what do you mean Leitner’s in the tunnels?

what do you mean Jon eats the extinguished sun??

what do you mean it’s spelled Gerard Keay???

[daxite]

they'd get along really well i think :D

[musubiki]

i like to imagine theres a lot of hostility between madam springs and sulluvan, one whose job is to deliver souls and the other extends life...."You're putting me out of a job, rat lady." sulluvan tells her. its not even for a noble cause, she keeps people alive for money, he thinks.

also a lot of hostility between the merchant and madam springs. "The best goods at the best prices," the merchant claims about his wares, and then finds out madam springs is selling "better" elixirs, "ethically sourced," and "100% natural". "I can't wait for your replacement," he sings in passing. "I'll make sure they're worse than me." is all she has to say to him

[greatmuldini]

The Iron Harp

We’re all in prison together, Johnny, one way or the other.

Act 1

Outwardly, Joseph O'Conor's play is a simple tale of love and loss in times of war: set in rural Ireland in early April of 1920, the action takes place on the property of an English industrialist whose mansion has been taken over by a contingent of IRA volunteers. Their leader is Michael O'Riordan, a gifted poet-musician in civilian life and conveniently the peace-time manager of the Englishman's estate. Michael has recently been wounded in action; now blind as a result he is no longer on active duty but still responsible for an English prisoner of war. Being a man of his word, Captain John Tregarthen has made no attempt to escape, earning Michael's trust and eventually his friendship. He also earns the friendship and love of Michael’s cousin Molly Kinsella, with whom he spends long days roaming the extensive grounds of his idyllic prison. Dreaming of a future life together, the lovers are oblivious to the feelings of their “best friend” – who ends up sacrificing his love for Molly in what he hopes will be a lasting gesture of selflessness only to find that Fate intervenes, with devastating consequences for them all.

Completing the quartet of characters is the dark and “indistinct” figure of IRA commander Sean Kelly, a dark and "indistinct" figure who emerges from the shadows to immediately assert his authority not only in military matters but - crucially, and disturbingly - in those of the heart as well. Specifically, it is the heart of Michael O’Riordan that Kelly claims to know better than O’Riordan himself. As a flesh-and-blood character Kelly is difficult to pin down: cold and calculating by his own admission, he expresses admiration for Michael's hot-blooded fighting spirit. Michael's own startled response to Kelly entering "like Nemesis himself" is ambiguous at best, and even his description of Kelly as a “good friend” comes on the back of a warning to Johnny that "he won't like you."

When Kelly tells Michael that he has never been wrong and does not know what it means to feel regret, the sense of foreboding is inescapable, yet Michael never seems to give in to the negativity emanating from his old wartime comrade who admonishes him to see his friends “as they really are” and not as “you want to see them.” Ironically, Michael refuses to see an enemy in John Tregarthen, but he is equally stubborn in applying the same criteria of honour, loyalty, and friendship to Sean Kelly, who seems troubled by this flaw in Michael’s character: "you love people too much."

Michael's emotional warmth stands in stark contrast to Kelly's impersonation of infallibility - which Michael seems to accept as a token of his friend's unassailable integrity. He continues to defer to Kelly's judgment when a messenger arrives with bad news from the front: three IRA fighters have been killed in skirmishes with British forces, and reprisals must be carried out. Twisting the metaphorical knife in the very real emotional wound, Kelly as the commanding officer nominates blind Michael to be the impartial instrument of God's justice. Forced to select three victims for execution, Michael all but collapses when one of the chosen names is that of Captain John Tregarthen.

Act 2

After he has persuaded Johnny to flee the country and reunite with Molly back in England, Michael is left alone to guard the now empty house. Blind and unable to defend himself, Michael is powerless against two marauding Black & Tans who break into the property and proceed to taunt and abuse the solitary occupant. It does not take them long to realize their victim is an IRA member rather than a civilian enjoying certain protections. Further violence is prevented only by the surprise return of Captain Tregarthen, armed and in uniform, who holds the attacker at gunpoint until Kelly and his entourage arrive to take the men away. Where any other human being would have expressed relief or gratitude at the discovery that the life of his friend has been saved, Kelly’s reaction is characteristically impassive, betraying, if anything, a degree of irritation at the unforeseen complication that has shown the condemned prisoner – the enemy – to be capable of compassion and self-sacrifice in saving the life of his friend. Human qualities that Kelly explicitly claims not to possess. As if to prove the point, he responds with the formal announcement of Tregarthen’s impending execution.

The order is to be carried out within three days, enough time for Kelly to travel to headquarters - and return with a firing squad. But first he must interrogate the captured Tans. While Kelly is thus occupied, Molly manages to convince the love of her life to take her with him. Johnny only agrees to the plan on the promise that Michael will convince Kelly to rescind the execution. If Johnny and Molly can make their way to Belfast on the early morning goods train, and from there to England, all will be well. Michael knows how to distract the guards, and Molly can bribe the train driver to let Johnny jump aboard. Three loud whistles will give the all-clear. With hopes of future happiness rekindled, Molly and Johnny each rush off to their respective tasks, and Michael is left alone with three empty glasses that he cannot see – a detail that does not escape Kelly’s notice as he re-joins Michael to formally accept his plea for clemency. Which he says he will duly submit to "the general," but in his estimation the chances of success are slim. "For God's sake, don't build up hope," he tells Michael before agonizing – to himself – over how to soften the blow for Michael: by bringing the execution forward and keeping it secret, he is certain he can spare Michael the pain and the guilt of having to witness the event.

Act 3

In the pre-dawn hours of the following day, Michael and Johnny are wide awake and waiting for the sentries to change and the train to whistle. Thinking the house empty and their enemies far away, they pass the time in a dreamlike state of high anxiety, reciting heroic poems and melancholy songs in whispering voices, so as not to miss the stroke of six to mark the end of their nightmare and the beginning of a new life – only to see Kelly standing in the door, with orders for Johnny to be executed at dawn, 24 hours earlier than they were told originally. Michael's world is falling apart, he pleads with Kelly, he begs him to show mercy, but an almost equally distressed Kelly reminds him that "I have never promised you hope." Johnny declines the comfort of a priest or minister and is led away to meet his fate offstage while, also offstage, Molly will be waiting in vain for the love of her life to board a train that will never arrive.

Left on stage for their final confrontation are Michael and his Nemesis, both knowing full well that nothing they can do or say will change what Kelly might term the preordained outcome of their efforts. To Michael's accusation of "trickery" (by which he means Kelly's surprise return before the agreed time), Kelly offers no subterfuge, no defence, and no evasion. Instead, he says, Michael’s agony is self-inflicted: it was, in fact, his own stubborn insistence on hoping against hope that has now led to anguish and pain. The only way for Michael to end all suffering, Kelly explains, is to give up hope. Unless he manages to see past the private pain of the moment and becomes a distant observer, Michael will forever be "tortured by hope."

Here Kelly is borrowing from the Conte Cruel tradition made famous by Edgar Allan Poe but named after a collection of short stories by the French symbolist writer Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. A useful definition of the genre is that it concerns "any story whose conclusion exploits the cruel aspects of the irony of fate." Not only does Kelly borrow the concept, and the title from Villiers' tale, The Torture of Hope, he even recounts the plot to underline his point:a hapless victim of the Inquisition escapes his prison cell only to stumble into the arms of the Chief Inquisitor. The lesson for Michael is that, like the victim, he keeps on hoping for release only to suffer defeat over and over again. There are no similarities, however, between himself and the sadistic Inquisitor, Kelly says: his mission is to ease Michael'ssuffering, not to prolong it.

We are given no reason to doubt Kelly’s sincerity, but neither can we reconcile the apparent contradiction between his declared intention and putting Michael’s best friend before a firing squad. If Kelly wants to end all suffering, as he says, surely, a good start would be to save Captain Tregarthen’s life? It is the argument that Michael himself is trying to make, by reminding Kelly of his god-like powers. Michael’s understanding of those powers differs fundamentally from Kelly’s own. Michael’s life-affirming principle of hope and Kelly’s seductive all-consuming fatalism are the two opposing philosophies that take centre stage in the final scene – while John Tregarthen dies a largely symbolic death offstage.

Johnny’s death is symbolic in that it is not the tragedy at the heart of the play. Michael O’Riordon is the conventional male protagonist whose existential crisis we are witnessing; Michael is unable to prevent the execution of his best friend; and to make that very point, his best friend must die. Michael’s blindness contributes to this failure in the course of the play but read as a metaphor it turns Michael into “one of us.” His blindness leaves him vulnerable to attack and it echoes our own sense of powerlessness in the face of an overwhelmingly hostile universe. The reverse, however, is also true: being blind, and being a poet, puts Michael in the illustrious company of the Blind Bard, an archetype of Western literature since at least the (mythical) time of Homer: the blind singer/seer whose “inner vision” surpasses that of sighted humanity. His Irish equivalent – and explicit model for Michael - is the (dwarf) Harper of Finn, whose iron-stringed instrument has the power to move its audience to tears. Michael O’Riordon is both vulnerable and endowed with the superpower of emotional insight – fundamentally human qualities that Kelly admires in Michael, and which he admits he does not possess.

Kelly is an abstract concept in human form; even while he is evidently the cause of human suffering, in his denial he appears to be channelling the sadistic Inquisitor. The apparent contradiction is of our own making, though: Kelly is Cruel Fate personified. He represents that which we like to imagine as the source of all our woes - the betrayals, the injustices, the disappointments which inevitably end in what we define as tragedy and what to the rest of the universe, that hostile universe, is of no consequence whatsoever. If we substitute “hostile” with “indifferent,” then Kelly becomes the antithesis to Michael’s humanity – his indifference is as inhuman as the infinite, indifferent universe. Conversely, Michael is not concerned with an infinite universe; his frame of reference is on a human scale, and very finite. When Kelly challenges Michael to take his place and adopt his abstract, God-like perspective on life, death, and the universe, Michael does reject the responsibility – but also the indifference required for the position. If the promise of a pain-free existence did not convince Michael to abandon hope, Kelly's failure to shame him into admitting defeat is a testament, at the very least, to human perseverance: we will forever be prolonging the agony to delay the inevitable. (1/4)

[fromtheseventhhell]

do you find the “haelena the dreamer” crowd ridiculous? like the show changed her into one which was pointless because it does nothing and it leads to nothing in her arc. idk but i hate how ppl genuinely believe she was one, when she wasn’t and try to compare her to daenerys or daenys or worse steal from daenerys arc to apply to haelena like i’ve seen green stans claim daenerys isn’t a dreamer but haelena is one… and then steal dany’s line for a bland character like it’s so annoying

Green stans in general just seem to love stealing from Dany + her arc to apply to their faves...interesting considering a lot of them don't even like her or House Targaryen (cause Alicent's pure Hightower blood purified the bad Targaryen blood obvi 🙄). Haelena gets Dany's dreamer quotes, Alicent is called "Mother of Dragons", Haelena/Aemond/Aegon are called the "three heads of the dragon", etc. As per usual, the traditional feminine crowd aren't satisfied with Haelena just being a dreamer; They need her to be the most powerful, important dreamer ever so that means ignoring Dany or any other Targ dreamer. It's annoying that it's so popular in this fandom (both HOTD and ASOIAF) to steal content from characters and just decide it can apply to anyone. They could just enjoy Dany's story but they're too busy having a superiority complex over fictional characters to choose characters they actually like.

[girlwithcursedeye]

They seem to forget my name

What's my name? What's my name?

'Cause you called me someone else the other day

Professor Alfred Fromm and agent Anna Biyan in the dg campaign.

[ailurocide]

Bassnose five truths?

Bassnose: Five Truths

i.

Son of Echoheart, the kindest head-openheart, and Hailmaw the Steadfast Current, sturdy fairlead.

The little middle child of his litter. Younger to Vaironeclaw and elder to Perchpad.

Endlessly protective of them all.

ii.

Confident. Cocky. Challenging.

Caring. Clear-sighted. Creative.

Curious. Carefree. Charming.

Bassnose says many things of himself. And despite his typical, boastful tone, they are all true.

iii.

Very crafty and good with his paws, and has said the very shocking statement that he would completely give up swimming if it meant being able to get his paws on some of the Highpeak’s materials.

iv.

A family man at heart. Would lay his life on the line for his family in an instant.

v.

He refuses to eat bugs, or his vegetables.

[foxfire-hashira]

Hot take, but it is REALLY fucking annoying when horror movie plots/lore make ZERO sense without the presence of YouTube fan analyses. I hate coming out of movies being absolutely unable to explain the plot because it was so terribly put together. I hate it when all we have are SUBJECTIVE FAN ANALYSES to explain some of these dogshit films and their lore.

And no, I'm not talking about movies that have weird chronology like The Conjuring.

I'm talking about movies like Heredetary that make NO SENSE unless you pause the movie and go frame by frame to pick up a splitsecond detail on a prop or in the background of a set.

It's an annoying writing style and I'm going to start swatting studios who do this shit with a fucking rolled up newspaper

[suujatan]

Went back and edited this old-ass little fan-fic of mine.

An immortal warrior with centuries of combat experience settles down to run an orphanage. Slave traders kidnap some of the children…big mistake.

[cryptidapprentice]

why is it that whenever i am faced with the relatives of a close friend (usually an older sibling/cousin/etc that i hear a lot about in passing) i revert to my 'im not even here' mode

[inviso-bill-strikes-again]

wow i make a lot of the posts on here huh