#I could say a lot more

[thefableddestiel]

Here’s a parallel I noticed that highlights the difference between Cas relationship with Dean and Cas relationship with Sam pretty well. Episodes 10x22 vs 14x15

When MOC Dean is beating up Cas, Cas doesn’t hit back even once. The most he does is try to bear hug him from behind to calm him down. But not a single punch.

When Sam is Justin Smith, Cas says he won’t hurt him, but he actually does pick him up and slam him into the ground. It’s not a big deal, obviously he knows Sam can take it, but it’s something he wouldn’t even do with Dean.

Before the actual fighting, Cas tells dean, “I’m your friend… I’ll be the one that watches you murder the world.” And then when MOC Dean is on top of Cas holding the angel blade to him, Cas holds onto the wrist Dean has on his tie and the only thing he says is, “please”. He doesn’t even try to grab the hand holding the knife. And then Dean stops.

On the other hand, when Sam is on top of Cas trying to stab him, Cas uses an entirely different approach. He’s forcibly holding back Sam’s arm that’s holding the angel blade. He tells him he understands that he wants to be happy, but that if he does this he fails the people they lost. He says “if you do this you fail Jack. Sam, you fail Dean.” And that makes Sam stop.

The difference that’s so stark is that Cas has to appeal to Sam through talking about Dean. But Cas can appeal to Dean through his own relationship to him. He doesn’t need to bring up what it will do to Sam or anyone else, because their own relationship is powerful enough and he knows it.

[hookliner]

i wanna kiss him. i wanna pin his wrists above his head. i wanna hold his hand in public. i wanna learn his order at local stores. i wanna eat him out. i wanna learn what his body feels like in the dark. i wanna make him laugh. i wanna play a video game with him until the early hours of the morning. i wanna get high with him. i wanna make him cum. i wanna paint his nails. i wanna love him and have it be known.

[profbastard]

I know this is a stupid question, but are you going to watch the Super Mario Bros. Movie?

I know I will at some point. I think I'd like to watch it in a language other than English though. Maybe Spanish if the dub is good (I'm functionally fluent in Spanish, but far from a master/native speaker)

I have a lot of BIG and COMPLICATED feelings regarding the movie, so it'll be like ripping off a bandage for roughly uuhhh an hour and a half.

[vitos-ordination-song]

Rufus Weylin was an interesting, compelling, pitiable, and loathable character. It would have been easy for Butler to just write off his behavior as a product of his time, but the fact is, he may have been a bad person no matter what time he was born into, despite having some likable qualities.

Examining the character, I don’t think racism was one of his major motivators. His dependence on Dana from childhood made him more aware that he wasn’t inherently superior. He was also introduced to radical ideas that he was forced to accept as true—slavery would one day end, interracial marriage would become legal, and black women would be considered equal to white men. He was treated like an object himself as a child, hit with the same whip used on slaves. Despite all of that, he didn’t become an abolitionist, an anti-racist, or even a particularly decent man. He could have; it wasn’t impossible for people of that time to do so. So why not?

Rufus was written as a self-centered person with a strong temper, capable of loving but only possessively. He could have been an abuser even if he’d been born in the 20th century, but with the power of a slave holder, he was bound to become a monster. Dana’s influence undoubtedly restrained him, but not enough. When he became the master of his father’s estate, he didn’t act as horribly as his father had, but he prioritized his own desires first. He wanted Alice; he was a rapist. He tried to control Dana, and his crimes against others were motivated by his possessiveness.

It says something about his character that he was going to kill himself on losing Alice, and in a way, he did commit suicide ultimately, by attempting to force himself on Dana. I think he knew that was a line he shouldn’t cross. Rufus’s character highlights the sickness of the enslaver: a person who is so intent on possessing another that they destroy themselves.

On the one hand, you could say that Dana and Rufus’s story transcends the historical setting and becomes universal, a story about human relationships marred by possession. But I do think their relationship has something to say about black/white politics, historical and present. I was particularly struck by Rufus revealing near the end of the novel that since childhood, he’d been plagued by nightmares of Dana leaving him to die. Here was one black person with the power to hurt and betray him. His subconscious gave him those dreams as an expression of his racial guilt and anxiety. Many white people fear revenge for the history of racism. He knew on some level that his people deserved comeuppance, and so did he once he started abusing his power. Yet Dana was actually kind to Rufus, forgiving and understanding, until the very end. Those with less power must have empathy for those with more—it’s a matter of survival. And Dana didn’t want to hurt someone without cause. She was even tempted to comply with his advances in that final passage. But she decided, no. I will not allow this. I am a human being who has the right to reject this man. The novel was full of scenes of Dana holding back, not defending herself, swallowing anger. But when she had the chance and the reason, she sprung into action. Through this, Butler demonstrates that submission for survival is not the same thing as capitulation; it is merely biding one’s time. Even then, Dana had to pay a cost. It wasn’t punishment, she was not guilty. It was just an acknowledgement of the harm done to her—through slavery, and through being forced to kill Rufus, her own ancestor, oppressor, and friend.

[hinamie]

unconditionally

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Soup solves everything.

[inkskinned]

i love when words fit right. seize was always supposed to be that word, and so was jester. tuesday isn't quite right but thursday should be thursday, that's a good word for it. daisy has the perfect shape to it, almost like you're laughing when you say it; and tulip is correct most of the time. while keynote is fun to say, it's super wrong - i think they have to change the label for that one. but fox is spot-on.

most words are just, like, good enough, even if what they are describing is lovely. the night sky is a fine term for it but it isn't perfect the way november is the correct term for that month.

it's not just in english because in spanish the phrase eso si que es is correct, it should be that. sometimes other languages are also better than the english words, like how blue is sloped too far downwards but azul is perfect and hangs in the air like glitter. while butterfly is sweet, i think probably papillion is more correct, although for some butterflies féileacán is much better. year is fine but bliain is better. sometimes multiple languages got it right though, like how jueves and Πέμπτη are also the right names for thursday. maybe we as a species are just really good at naming thursdays.

and if we were really bored and had a moment and a picnic to split we could all sit down for a moment and sort out all the words that exist and find all the perfect words in every language. i would show you that while i like the word tree (it makes you smile to say it), i think arbor is correct. you could teach me from your language what words fit the right way, and that would be very exciting (exciting is not correct, it's just fine).

i think probably this is what was happening at the tower of babel, before the languages all got shifted across the world and smudged by the hand of god. by the way, hand isn't quite right, but i do like that the word god is only 3 letters, and that it is shaped like it is reflecting into itself, and that it kind of makes your mouth move into an echoing chapel when you cluck it. but the word god could also fit really well with a coathanger, and i can't explain that. i think donut has (weirdly) the same shape as a toothbrush, but we really got bagel right and i am really grateful for that.

grateful is close, but not like thunder. hopefully one day i am going to figure out how to shape the way i love my friends into a little ceramic (ceramic is very good, almost perfect) pot and when they hold it they can feel the weight of my care for them. they can put a plant in there. maybe a daisy.

[stump-not-found]

young man has wonderful encounters yay

[wasyago]

tango doodles

first you make up a guy and then you struggle to draw him correctly

[cozylittleartblog]

Columbo and the Knight (1984)

put me in the universe where Columbo ran through the 1980s and had a crossover episode with Knight Rider. I think they deserved it, and I am not just saying that because they're my two favorite Old Shows. @telebeast wrote a little fanfic blurb about it and I HAD to visualize it into a comic (which is also the longest comic I have finished thus far at five pages...), so writing credit goes to them.

Autism W!

[jingerpi]

meaningful work: transgender experience in the sex trade

[bookalicent]

yeah so this was insane

[puppyeared]

horrible truth bomb dropped on my head 20 min ago

[mewmewdoppio]

A sma𝗹l billf𝗼rd c𝗼mic that too𝗸 me a few days to make with my take on a human bill design.

𝗖ouple more sketches + f𝗹at/alt c𝗼lor𝘀 of pag𝗲 four.

[technically-human]

Part two of the reverse verse is here! The reverse boys meet the original boys. They're not really getting along as well as I had hoped...

Again, this was a commission for @i-am-as-normal-as-you-are and they asked for angst/funny vibes... I think it's mostly just angst though. Oh, well...

Part one

[ducktracy]

there are a lot of evil people in the world and a lot of darkness in the world and so it’s very important for me to stress that now more than ever is the time to spread kindness and compassion. combat the evil by not only not partaking in it, but actively refuting it. destroy the notion that being compassionate or generous or kind to someone is uncool or embarrassing or even scary. be the change you want to see. start a chain reaction. positivity only breeds more positivity. do an act of kindness for someone so that that person who is too afraid to do it themselves can see you, realize that they’re not alone, and perhaps sheepishly follow your example. and then the next person who is too afraid but sees that person can do the same. when bad news comes out about bad people or horrible atrocities in the world it’s such an easy impulse to despair, and obviously it’s important to feel what you need to feel. grieve. be angry. be sorrowful. be empathetic. but dust off your pants and get up and be a part of a chain reaction that, no matter how small the scale, and spread compassion and love and care. all the reasons why you might not—“it’s hard! it’s scary! people will make fun of me! it’s useless because there’s too much evil!” are all grade A arguments as to why you should. you have no idea how many people you could inspire to do the same. even if it doesn’t get you anyway far, you can at least say you have the nobility of trying. please choose love and please choose life. you are worth loving and you are worth inspiring others to love