#I haven't even said anything about it

[fireboos99]

I don't do textposts much, but

BITES BITES BITES

while I don't like all of the lore we've gotten of Little Nightmares since III was announced (I will die on the hill that is my AU, and dream realm called Nowhere does not work with said AU, so I ignore that) I am excited to see how the game goes, I look forward to finding out which parts I can adapt into my AU. (definitely adopting Low and Alone)

I was, admittedly, along with the joke of "Reanimal is just LN" but, I understand that that's just Tarsier's style, and think that comparing the two games so much is stupid (or picking one over the other)

like, c'mon guys, we get two co-op horror games with young kids running from monsters in the style of Little Nightmares (one is actually part of the series, the other being created by the og creators. and really, I'm glad they're making another game like that<3)

anyway, I'm excited for both games, and think people should stop arguing over which one will be better. WE EATIN' GOOD, FOLKS!

[inkskinned]

the thing about art is that it was always supposed to be about us, about the human-ness of us, the impossible and beautiful reality that we (for centuries) have stood still, transfixed by music. that we can close our eyes and cry about the same book passage; the events of which aren't real and never happened. theatre in shakespeare's time was as real as it is now; we all laugh at the same cue (pursued by bear), separated hundreds of years apart.

three years ago my housemates were jamming outdoors, just messing around with their instruments, mostly just making noise. our neighbors - shy, cautious, a little sheepish - sat down and started playing. i don't really know how it happened; i was somehow in charge of dancing, barefoot and laughing - but i looked up, and our yard was full of people. kids stacked on the shoulders of parents. old couples holding hands. someone had brought sidewalk chalk; our front walk became a riot of color. someone ran in with a flute and played the most astounding solo i've ever heard in my life, upright and wiggling, skipping as she did so. she only paused because the violin player was kicking his heels up and she was laughing too hard to continue.

two weeks ago my friend and i met in the basement of her apartment complex so she could work out a piece of choreography. we have a language barrier - i'm not as good at ASL as i'd like to be (i'm still learning!) so we communicate mostly through the notes app and this strange secret language of dancers - we have the same movement vocabulary. the two of us cracking jokes at each other, giggling. there were kids in the basement too, who had been playing soccer until we took up the far corner of the room. one by one they made their slow way over like feral cats - they laid down, belly-flat against the floor, just watching. my friend and i were not in tutus - we were in slouchy shirts and leggings and socks. nothing fancy. but when i asked the kids would you like to dance too? they were immediately on their feet and spinning. i love when people dance with abandon, the wild and leggy fervor of childhood. i think it is gorgeous.

their adults showed up eventually, and a few of them said hey, let's not bother the nice ladies. but they weren't bothering us, they were just having fun - so. a few of the adults started dancing awkwardly along, and then most of the adults. someone brought down a better sound system. someone opened a watermelon and started handing out slices. it was 8 PM on a tuesday and nothing about that day was particularly special; we might as well party.

one time i hosted a free "paint along party" and about 20 adults worked quietly while i taught them how to paint nessie. one time i taught community dance classes and so many people showed up we had to move the whole thing outside. we used chairs and coatracks to balance. one time i showed up to a random band playing in a random location, and the whole thing got packed so quickly we had to open every door and window in the place.

i don't think i can tell you how much people want to be making art and engaging with art. they want to, desperately. so many people would be stunning artists, but they are lied to and told from a very young age that art only matters if it is planned, purposeful, beautiful. that if you have an idea, you need to be able to express it perfectly. this is not true. you don't get only 1 chance to communicate. you can spend a lifetime trying to display exactly 1 thing you can never quite language. you can just express the "!!??!!!"-ing-ness of being alive; that is something none of us really have a full grasp on creating. and even when we can't make what we want - god, it feels fucking good to try. and even just enjoying other artists - art inherently rewards the act of participating.

i wasn't raised wealthy. whenever i make a post about art, someone inevitably says something along the lines of well some of us aren't that lucky. i am not lucky; i am dedicated. i have a chronic condition, my hands are constantly in pain. i am not neurotypical, nor was i raised safe. i worked 5-7 jobs while some of these memories happened. i chose art because it mattered to me more than anything on this fucking planet - i would work 80 hours a week just so i could afford to write in 3 of them.

and i am still telling you - if you are called to make art, you are called to the part of you that is human. you do not have to be good at it. you do not have to have enormous amounts of privilege. you can just... give yourself permission. you can just say i'm going to make something now and then - go out and make it. raquel it won't be good though that is okay, i don't make good things every time either. besides. who decides what good even is?

you weren't called to make something because you wanted it to be good, you were called to make something because it is a basic instinct. you were taught to judge its worth and over-value perfection. you are doing something impossible. a god's ability: from nothing springs creation.

a few months ago i found a piece of sidewalk chalk and started drawing. within an hour i had somehow collected a small classroom of young children. their adults often brought their own chalk. i looked up and about fifteen families had joined me from around the block. we drew scrangly unicorns and messed up flowers and one girl asked me to draw charizard. i am not good at drawing. i basically drew an orb with wings. you would have thought i drew her the mona lisa. she dragged her mother over and pointed and said look! look what she drew for me and, in the moment, i admit i flinched (sorry, i don't -). but the mother just grinned at me. he's beautiful. and then she sat down and started drawing.

someone took a picture of it. it was in the local newspaper. the summary underneath said joyful and spontaneous artwork from local artists springs up in public gallery. in the picture, a little girl covered in chalk dust has her head thrown back, delighted. laughing.

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[teiasviago]

#Tav: *adds “make Gale a father” to their list of things to do when they get back to Waterdeep* - [5/∞]

[skyeslittlecorner]

About Two Stars...

I like to compile my feelings about events into one post, but this time I've been sitting for an hour and staring at the keyboard with an empty brain. This is probably the best proof of how strong this event was. Dense plot. Lots of emotions. Tons of worldbuilding and news. Oh lord.

i warn you, this will be VERY chaotic

Spoilers below cut

Gamigin is. He is. Is anyone surprised that Lucy just adopted him? I would do it too? He's sweet and silly steals the little dragon and puts him in a pocket he's mine now

...not that he was adopted right away, although it makes it all even funnier

They're affectionate. Both. This is just a family that found each other, I love this trope, and these are so heartbreaking-

I DON'T KNOW WHAT HE'S DOING HERE, BUT I'M HAPPY HE CAME! With other kings, I would be a little afraid, but it's Satan. I trust him. And rightly so, as it turned out.

Leaving it here just because satan and sitri

Sorry. I missed him. This idiot is willing to throw himself under a laser to protect the guy he tried to kill three seconds ago because he knows it would trigger Armageddon. I love you when you're smart, don't get close to MC, it overheats your brain.

BACK TO THE POINT

The fact that Luci fell from the sky himself is extraordinary. He ripped off his own wings. I LOVE IT. He is as delulu as angels are, but in a different way, because he sees pain and is able to face it.

But I think what impressed me the most was his relationship with the Seraphs. I thought they would act like brats and hate each others, and guess what, they do behave like a spoiled little brats, but in love with their older brother. So. Sweet. I'm so freaking biased about Michael and I cried like an idiot. They loved Luci. Luci loved them. In fact, the whole scene at the end, maybe it's my imagination, but Luci sounded like he wanted Michael to stay there with him instead of living an illusion in heaven. He could gouge out his eye as punishment, but he couldn't hurt him when he ordered other angels to die. In fact, he explained to him as if he were a younger brother… Aghhh! My heart! There is so much love and suffering between them. Of course, Michael, I'd gouge out your other eye for dragons, but ughhh

And we learned a very important thing that Michael is a little masochist.

And the whole thing was best summed up by Leraye

Me to puppy, me too

[lafragolina]

just kill me

[silversinfinity]

B/eastars is already such a horny show, and then they animate snz like THAT?

someone put their entire dick and balls into animating that spray, that's all I'm saying...

[ducktracy]

proper reupload in the high quality this fantastic segment so deserves; eagle pig and duck bias notwithstanding, this will forever be my favorite variant of the fabled switcheroo (and a reminder that Daffy was first at his own game!) the committal on behalf of both characters--especially the sincerity of Daffy's feigned sincerity--really sets it apart

[ilivingonmyway]

StaticEnergy Brothers AU (but it's the MovieVerse)

(I have nothing better to do, English class is boring)

It's a normal day for Lloyd. He's been receiving looks of mockery and fear from the moment he leaves home until he gets to school, Chen and his friends are teasing him as usual, and his ninja friends are fine. Zane with his usual weird and robotic ways, Cole quiet with his headphones blasting music, Kai and Nya acting like the older siblings that he never had.

And just like any other normal day, Garmadon attacks the city just before lunch time.

Lloyd and the others escape from class, put on their gis, grab their mechas, and head into battle. At first, nothing inusual happens. Lloyd orders his team to take on Garmadon's fleet of marines while he goes after Lord Shark himself. He easily finds him walking in his ridiculous shark mecha towards the mayor's building to take control of Ninjago City,they exchange some heated words and Lloyd is one step away from shooting missiles at his father. Is it his impression or his father is acting more annoying than usual?

Suddenly, Lloyd — or rather, the Green Ninja — is grabbed and thrown off his dragon and — holy crap, THERE IS FRICKING A KUSARIGAMA PRESSED TO HIS NECK.

A dark blue-gloved hand gripping the weapon's handle catches Lloyd's attention, only then does he look at his attacker, who is probably one (lucky) of his father's thousand seafood generals—

... Okay, so he's not wearing some ridiculous sea animal costume, he's actually dressed like a ninja. A black gi with varying shades of blue, some silver details and a single orange cloth underneath the outfit. The only sign of skin that Green sees is in the eye space of the mask. A patch of pale skin is decorated with a some visble freckles that are beneath electric blue eyes filled with determination.

Green hears Garmadon let out that annoyingly evil laugh and he sees the Oni approaching, only then does he realize that the guy who caught him off guard must be another one of Garmadon's soldiers, just with a better fashion style.

Garmadon steps down from his mecha and walks over to stand behind the evil ninja, smirking at the scene before him with malice and... Pride? Why isn't he giving that arrogant and mean face he gives to his normal soldiers?

"Very good move, my son."

Lloyd feels his breath catch and he is sure that this only sentence makes all of Ninjago stop moving.

"S-... Son?!" Green repeats, looking from the boy to Garmadon and back again. The Oni just laughs at his reaction.

"Oh yeah, I never brought him to our previous battles, so you guys never had the chance to meet each other." His father approaches the other Ninjac— his supossed brother — and places two hands on his shoulders, the other two behind his back. "Green Ninja, I want you to meet my son, the Lightning Ninja." Garmadon's sharp, toothy smile was fearsome. "Or Sparky for those close to him." He added, dropping his shoulders and patting the Blue one on the head.

For a moment, the three of them just stood there. Green with his throat at the mercy of Blue's curved blade while his father smiled maliciously. It was a tense moment, just like those in movies where the hero faces the villain after he makes his big revelation, and It was that's what it looked like, with Lloyd staring at his father in disbelief and confusion while Garmadon himself began to laugh uncontrollably.

That's when a throat clearing sound caught their attention.

"Dad, with all due respect, I understand that this is a tense moment and all, but did you realize that the rest of the Ninjas are destroying the fleet and that Cyan and Red are coming with everything on this way, right?"

Indeed, Nya and Kai's war screams sound in the distance.

[cruelplatonic]

ruminating on 'the vees died despondent nobodies' thoughts

velvette interrogates vox after she hears him give various conflicting and bombastic accounts on air. a selection of these include: blew his brains out on live television, administered the death penalty for killing his "bitch wife," a tragic accident involving two shetland ponies, dubiously legal iranian yogurts, and a whole lot of cocaine. the actual cause was shockingly ordinary- a heart attack in front of the television, alone, his corpse only recovered after two weeks passed. he was watching a game show and his last mortal regret was never even learning who won, because he died during the commercials.

[capn-twitchery]

sorry I was thinkin of the bit with Elias' party again, and on Grace not realizing theres anything going on with The Manager which led me to: funny how Grace cant recgonize there's anything strange going on with The Manager, but SOMEHOW can still recgonize theres somethin going on between him and Jamie XD the mix of que picking up here akdkffkgkh

DHGJKCFG listen i can only assume it's a matter of perspective--he's already very familiar with being around His 6ft+ tall very weird guy all the time! and His tall weirdo isn't a centuries old nightmare mirror man, so he has no reason to assume the manager is either 😌

BUT he is Also very well versed in being in a weird semi-in-denial-situationship with a very tall weird guy even if he won't admit it. because of the denial-- he knows those signs. jamie you can't hide that from him

(he won't say anything, because he's too polite to speculate, but he Knows)

[chronic-cane]

The fact that I'm taking a graduate level course and have a professor use "mental ret*rdation" in their slides infuriates me to no end.

Like, I mean no end. I'm trying my best to anonymously get it addressed within the department so that way the professor could correct it and make an announcement about its correction.

I'm also looking through the required textbook, and uh...

[Alt Text: picture of a man looking down one on one side with a blurred shadow of him looking scared or shocked on the other side. The photo is described as "image of dissociative identity disorder" end image description]

And a lot of calling mental illness madness, insanity, and even "minds of disturbed people."

It was published in 2021. (Sociology of Mental Disorder by William C. Cockerham if anyone wants to give it a shit review with me)

At this point I want the class to turn into a mad studies course. If you want to have that language so fucking badly then give the mic to the people who try to reclaim it. If you can screw up this badly, then start making it up to the ones you've screwed over.

But yeah a lot of my time about this class is pointing out how bad it is.

[sysig]

Coding woes (Patreon)

[thedreadvampy]

What would you call the genre of 2010s-2020s TV shows which are:

stylistic, with cinematic transitions and colorful shots

kind of tonally YA adjacent but aimed at adults; snappy, irreverent, probably centering some amount of mystery or detective work

mildly goth/alternative aesthetic and tone

involve pursuit by some manner of Paranormal Agency with a 60s bureaucracy aesthetic, either time travel or something similar, and a range of superpowers

the/a villain is almost certainly a woman with piled up hair and a skirt suit who character design and affect wise is doing what Michelle Gomez did in Doctor Who. Separately, Michelle Gomez may or may not also be there.

have an ensemble cast of quirky, sarcastic and jaded characters, interacting with a rotating cast of similarly quirky side characters

often but not always a comic book adaptation; either way, involves a heightened reality which aims to be as 'comicsy' as possible while achieving emotional verisimilitude.

I'm reasonably certain this has to now count as a genre or at least a concrete aesthetic cause I can reel off so many of these. Off the top of my head; Dirk Gently, Doom Patrol, Umbrella Academy, Loki, and Dead Boy Detectives, just to start. I think weirdly tonally and aesthetically these shows owe a lot to Pushing Daisies.

anyway yeah is there a name for this?

[raifuujin]

It's been more than 20 years and for some reason I feel that Gosho hasn't given Kaiao any development, how can more than 20 years pass and Aoko dynamics, relationship and feelings remain the same? At this point I feel like Gosho is just going to make them date because "they already liked each other" they remain in the same status quo

Hey, if we go by DC romance progress, they've been going too fast. We've already had suspicion of identity chapters, and that didn't happen until more than 400 chapters in DC. /j

Since heists have taken over any character development recently, I don't even know if Kaito and Aoko will even get any romantic progress. Maybe the actual identity confrontation will happen down the line, since that's thief drama, but atm, it really wouldn't surprise me if they only ask each other on a real date at the very end of the manga.

Like. I'm sure Gosho would love to make MK a love drama as well, but he writes MK so rarely, and usually as hype for something Kid related in other media. So the MK stories tend to be heavy on drama that can only take place at Kid heists. (To the point that the new chapters just. Use Kid as the plot device to show off a new character. Even Hakuba's never gotten so much 'look at this character being a detective' treatment in MK.)

-sighs- I just feel bad for MK as a series at this point. I like the characters, I like the general story idea, but. It's been going down a very steep hill with Gosho wanting things exciting, but not wanting any real progress in. Anything. But unlike old MK, the new stories aren't even nice standalone setpieces of story, they're... mundane. They could be high stakes, if you purely look at the scenarios on paper, but. We all know nothing's gonna happen to Kid. Nothing even happens to him when the actual bad guys show up, much less one-time antagonists.

We need actual character focus and development, not heist drama. Badly. Not even romance, though that'd be a nice change. Just any character expansion of our limited cast of characters. Gosho wants big, all the time, meaningless big stuff, when small would be so nice.

[tittyinfinity]

contemplating deleting my blog soon I might make a new blog but idk