#I don't know where I'm going with this

[shu-of-the-wind]

i read somewhere that grey whales can live upwards of 150 years, and that there are likely grey whales out in the oceans today that were alive and saw the massive whale hunts of the 19th century that inspired herman melville's moby dick.

to be clear, i have no idea if this is true. it could just be apocryphal, or something someone made up. but even if it isn't true, i think there's a something to read into that in terms of trauma and repair. if there really are whales on this planet today that are alive after seeing so many other creatures like them slaughtered and dragged out of the water by unknown hands for an unknown purpose, then those whales know the dangers and flee from them even after the people who hunted their kin have been over a hundred years dead. and they taught their calves to flee the same way. and those calves taught their calves.

150 year old whales teaching younger whales who teach younger whales who have no experience with the reasons why they must avoid boats, but know in their blood and bones that their safety relies on it.

something something trauma long outlives the people who inflict it. something something trauma transforms how generations grow.

[rhetoricalsoapbox]

Three journals...Bill Cipher is a three sided figure....

[ijustreallylikecaptainamericaok]

That's what it means to be a witch? Killing people to serve your own agenda? No. Not for me.

Are you sure?

I know many are utterly convinced that Billy killed Sharon and that this proves Agatha knows, but I don't buy any of that. Thing is, Billy doesn't have to directly harm anyone for Agatha to say this in an attempt to get under his skin and guilt trip him. Why? Because this whole thing was his idea and already two people are dead.

Now is that an entirely fair framing of all this? No. For one, it removes the agency of the rest of the coven and for another, it removes Agatha's responsibility in gathering the coven in the first place. But obviously, in that moment, Agatha's not trying to be fair. She's lashing out, because she's hurt and angry, understandably so.

[gravityrises]

Me Stanford Pines

🤝

canonically speaks German

[mint-ty]

Okay but Jere is very competitive, right? What if he's getting addicted to expanding his boyfriend pokedex? Coming for the really famous guys... hockey legends, presidents, national award athletes, etc etc... That cosy slotting into an armpit and direct eye contact might be intentional idk. Maybe he's doing a checkmark in his mind ✅️

Maybe he also asked Bojan for flirting tips and now Bojči is biting his nails because he misunderstood the intention..

[ldpdluvr]

okay i'm having more femme lesbian louis thoughts i feel like she'd be the type of girl who just doesn't know how beautiful she is, don't get me wrong she knows she's attractive but she doesn't realise just how much of a catch she actually is...like imagine she finally comes to terms with her lesbianism (after repressing her sexuality for years) and wants to start dating so she puts herself out there (not that she has to do much) and to her surprise people come flooding in wanting to take her out, she wouldn't know what to do with all of that or where to start but luckily for her she makes a new butch friend (lestat ofc) who offers to teach her the ropes to lesbian dating 🤓

[annawry]

Loneliness and Love

It’s a strange thing, loneliness. 

It’s a bit like love, Edwin is starting to realize. He loves Charles, he’s in love with Charles, however unrequited. He believes, now, that he can say he loves Crystal as well, although in an entirely different manner. He loved Simon enough to forgive him, and Monty enough to want to be his friend despite the disastrous kiss and hurt feelings. He thinks he loved Niko, if the aching hollow in his chest whenever he thinks of her is anything to go by. All sorts of different loves. All sorts of different ways of feeling it, of receiving it, of sharing it.

There are different ways of feeling lonely, too. The loneliness of feeling as though something was wrong with him; a feeling that kept him at arm's length from all of his peers before his death, an invisible barrier that he couldn’t risk breaching. There’s the loneliness of being with his friends now and feeling the absence of one. There’s a kind of loneliness in being a ghost as well, incorporeal and detached from the world, never quite a part of it. 

And the loneliness of being in love with your best friend. Of standing by his side and knowing that he is the most important person in the world to you, and you to him, but not like that. Of wanting to kiss him, and knowing it wouldn’t be welcome.

At least Edwin can’t say he’s never been kissed now, but he does know the loneliness of that, too. Of never having experienced such a fundamental, foundational part of being alive: being loved romantically, being chosen, being desired. 

Although he supposes he can’t quite say he doesn’t know what that’s like, either. Simon desired him enough to sacrifice him, if ineptly, to a demon. Monty would have chosen him, in defiance of Esther and his entire purpose for existing in a human form. Only Edwin hadn’t wanted any of that, and being wanted by someone he doesn’t want in return is hardly a balm for a heart that yearns to know what it’s like to be in love with someone who is in love with him.

Perhaps that’s why he can’t quite stop thinking about the Cat King. Oh, he’s not foolish enough to think the King is in love with him, or ever would be. But maybe there’s something to be said for shared desire. The Cat King has made it abundantly clear what he wants from Edwin and Edwin can admit, now, that he's more than a little bit attracted to him in return. But what the Cat King offers is carnal pleasure and it’s somewhat ironic that the only kind of reciprocal desiring and desired that Edwin currently has available to him, is the one he can’t physically feel. And he doesn’t think ‘up there’, as Charles had put it, is going to be enough. In fact, he fears it will only make it worse.

But loneliness is a strange thing, and perhaps that is why Edwin finds himself walking the streets of Port Townsend again, having slipped away from their office through a mirror. He has spied more than one cat along his walk, and thinks it won’t be long until he is found.

[yondamoegi]

With the rampant enshitification going on, are there even good luxury products now? If even luxury products are made with shitty quality in shitty conditions, why not buy a bootleg model much cheaper and the same quality?

Tbh for me a truly luxury product would be something handmade that will last 50 or more years

Behold!

Handmade crochet pumpkins I bought from a street vendor. I truly live on the lap of luxury

[made-ofmemories]

The contrast between Kathleen telling Perry to burn the bodies because it’s quicker and Joel and Ellie taking the time to bury Henry and Sam though...

[the-phoenix-heart]

I think we often forget that back in episode 6 Stolas called himself "a real demon" as opposed to imps (and hellhounds because Luna was also there).

[o-craven-canto]

Unfortunately, since every individual organism on Earth is equally ensouled, any given metempsychotic soul will spend most of its time being bacteria. True, the average lifespan of a given bacterium is about 10^6 shorter than a human's, but then the number of bacteria is about 10^20 greater, so on average you're going to spend 10^14 bacteria-years for each human year. (For comparison, the universe is only about 10^10 years old.) And of course, in the off-chance that you reincarnate as an animal at all, you're virtually guaranteed to be either an ant or a krill shrimp. And in the off-chance of the off-chance that you turn out a land-dwelling vertebrate, odds are good that you'll be a rodent or a battery chicken.

Only one soul was ever documented living two lifespans as a human. One lasted about 12 minutes, taking place during the 1930 floods of the Yellow River. The other lasted 87 years, which it mostly spent ploughing a turnip patch in 16th century Tatarstan.

[baughtio]

Falling into Honey

tw: violence, eye injury, implied suicidal thoughts, creepy whumper

Whumpee lay on the floor. Through the foggy mush of their mind they could hear the Hero thrashing about, pleading under those black polished shoes. The shoes glimmered in and out of focus like the blade of a knife swinging tauntingly before their ripped eye socket. Who knows what Whumper was doing to them.

By the time Whumpee had propped themselves up to a sitting position, Whumper had already left. It'd been a peaceful day, just lying about for hours with their back on the cold floor, rusted with their blood. The long gash on their torso still dripping with blood was their perfect excuse for not being a well-functioning adult who contributes to society. If only they could slide down a little more into the dark bliss of pet life; if only Whumper would pull hard enough on the chains around their neck, then nobody could blame them for falling even deeper into a selfless state...

"Go away..."

Whumpee opened their remaining eye at the sound of the Hero mumbling to themselves. Despite their gooey vision, they could feel the Hero glaring intently at the basement door. They still had both of their eyes which were glowing a brilliant gold. Pulling vivaciously against the heavy chains, they seemed to be taking a stand, as if the light in their eyes alone would burn this institution down. Whumpee gazed at the Hero, holding their breath as the gold jumped into their eye and flickered against their grey pupils.

"Die."

"Die..." wheezed the Hero.

Then they collapsed into fitful of wet coughs and the chains easily brought the Hero bowing on their knees. Whumpee blinked as the gold disappeared from their eyes. They'd turned back into the two puddles of honey which Whumper loved to let spill and feast from.

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

Click. Four cartridges left.

Whumpee bit their lips as they saw the bullet rip into the Hero's shoulder. The scalding metal crunched the bones above their palpitating heart.

"You take it very well honey."

Hero let out an agonising groan.

"It's honestly a bummer," said Whumper as he stroked the revolver, "that it fired when we were still on the second round. I wanted to build a bit more tension..."

Hero tried supporting their broken shoulder with their right arm, but the chains just dug deeper into the wound.

"...because it's fun seeing you scared like this. You know what? I'm going to get another one of these toys and let Whumpee over here pull the trigger for me."

Whumper threw the empty revolver at Whumpee's head.

"If you don't Whumpee, I'll drop you off at the company. And what will they do with a useless body that can't even speak, huh?"

And just like that, Whumper twirled around and left Whumpee stealing concerned glances at the whimpering mess of Hero. Whumpee wanted to comfort Hero, but even a broken Hero might not want to associate with them. They thanked the chains for making the choice to do nothing for them. They despised themselves for it.

"Die..."

It was Hero's voice again.

"Die..."

Whumpee closed their eye this time. Maybe Hero was telling them to die and that could come true if they kept lying in the pool of their own blood.

"... kill... "

How long had it been since the dreams of those sleepless nights had become their reality? Once dreams are fulfilled, the night becomes void.

"Go kill..."

Whumpee sat in the shadows of a beach. The empty revolver lay with them. Before them was the sea in its golden hour, dark waves flapping beneath an incandescent surface. They couldn't tell if the sun peering just above the horizon was rising or setting. When they blinked it blinked with them, and just for a moment, Whumpee felt like falling into its golden embrace.

[hildegardladyofbones]

I AM DOING OKAY I AM DOING VERY FINE INDEED IN FACT I AM HAVING A SPLENDID TIME THE WORLD IS A RAINBOW AND I'M ON A SUGAR CLOUD AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING THE NICEST GIRL IN TOO-OO-OWN

[leet911]

Something something Laudna having had so many years to try blending in, try at being normal, but still being chased from town to town. So instead she learned to stay hidden, unseen, live on the outside. But then she met Imogen, and Imogen saw her weirdness, Imogen let her be herself, and Imogen became her best friend regardless. Imogen stayed with her, and left with her, and lived with her, and fought for her, and brought her back to life the second time. Imogen said "you're my tether". And so now Laudna embraces the weird, the fun scary and the scary scary. Laudna leaps at the chance to meet new people, especially as a group. Laudna proudly proclaims. "I'm the weird one, see? You're not too weird, because I'm the weird one. So don't worry about being yourself, you won't weird me out, we can be friends, right? I like having friends! Have you met my undead rat-bird?"

[howlingguardian]

Thinking about how the Entities in Worm are basically cancer. Their entire goal is to spread and grow and reproduce and consume without limit or regard for anything else around them.

In that regard, Cauldron's strategy to fight them is like chemotherapy- it's basically pumping the world full of lethal chemicals and hoping like hell that it kills the disease before the patient.

There's also something ironic in the fact that Scion's first interaction with a human being was to cure her cancer.

[ferallair]

Playing with high Motorics is interesting. You notice things like the winch(that goddam winch). Things that are practical and directly tied to the case. When you are low Motorics you also notice these things but subconsciously. So you become obsessed with a blue door because it speaks to your soul.

Harry explored the entire island before Kim arrives (maybe even the sea fortress?). I wonder if Harry solved the case before he got drunk and blacked out. Or maybe while in some drug and booze induced higher conscientiousness state (I once... had and "interesting" night and could suddenly read peoples minds). Anyway, I wonder if Harry's mind is delivering him clues that he already discovered. Which makes replaying it interesting because you can suddenly see all the hints that are being dropped on you.