#I just think that’s probably the most noble use of a human brain

[elodieunderglass]

changes and trends in horror-genre films are linked to the anxieties of the culture in its time and place. Vampires are the manifestation of grappling with sexuality; aliens, of foreign influence. Horror from the Cold War is about apathy and annihilation; classic Japanese horror is characterised by “nature’s revenge”; psychological horror plays with anxieties that absorbed its audience, like pregnancy/abortion, mental illness, femininity. Some horror presses on the bruise of being trapped in a situation with upsetting tasks to complete, especially ones that compromise you as a person - reflecting the horrors and anxieties of capitalism etc etc etc. Cosmic horror is slightly out of fashion because our culture is more comfortable with, even wistful for, “the unknown.” Monster horror now has to be aware of itself, as a contingent of people now live in the freedom and comfort of saying “I would willingly, gladly, even preferentially fuck that monster.” But I don’t know much about films or genres: that ground has been covered by cleverer people.

I don’t actually like horror or movies. What interests me at the moment is how horror of the 2020s has an element of perception and paying attention.

Multiple movies in one year discussed monsters that killed you if you perceived them. There are monsters you can’t look at; monsters that kill you instantly if you get their attention. Monsters where you have to be silent, look down, hold still: pray that they pass over you. M Zombies have changed from a hand-waved virus that covers extras in splashy gore, to insidious spores. A disaster film is called Don’t Look Up, a horror film is called Nope. Even trashy nun horror sets up strange premises of keeping your eyes fixed on something as the devil GETS you.

No idea if this is anything. (I haven’t seen any of these things because, unfortunately, I hate them.) Someone who understands better than me could say something clever here, and I hope they do.

But the thing I’m thinking about is what this will look like to the future, as the Victorian sex vampires and Cold War anxieties look to us. I think they’ll have a little sympathy, but they probably won’t. You poor little prey animals, the kids will say, you were awfully afraid of facing up to things, weren’t you?

[allcotogorydownloadvideo]

best horror movie

[mooshs-crack-headcanons]

could I ask for hcs for how day to day life would change for erwin, hange, and levi's s/o after dealing with their notable injuries they get during the story? IE erwin's arm, hanji's eye, levi's scars, eye, and fingers ect? I hope this was clear enough I hope you have a nice day/night!

Sure thing and don't worry I understood you're request just fine, thank you. I hope you're having a nice current timezone anon :)

(Gender neutral reader)

Erwin Smith

Things are... mostly the same as the were before for the most part. Not right away though because of course all the stuff with Rod Reiss, Historia, the man hunt for Survey Corps heads, and the fact Erwin was quite literally sentenced to death not that long after losing it so things were of course very hectic to where there wasn't really a good adjustment period until the two month preparation period to reclaim Shingashima.

It's a shame really, it was his dominant hand too, now all his paperwork is signed with a slight messiness to it he isn't exactly a fan of. But he makes do, relearning and rewiring how his brain works to make up for the lost limb. But even if he doesn't say it out loud, you know more than anyone exactly how hard it is for him - even if to so many people he has so many different airs and appearances to keep.

"Oh it's just an arm, a small sacrifice for the greater good of Humanity. Many good, amazing, talented people have lost more. This is a minor scratch compared to that."

That's what he told Nile that night over dinner together with you and Marie too after Erwin's charges had been offically cleared off the records. Truth be told, none of you at that table bought it, even if he really did intentionally mean it - you three knew him, and it was subtle but with how he struggled to pick up and properly use the fork in his sole surviving hand spoke all it need to. It was a very human struggle - one he did everything to hide.

He can't shave his face by himself anymore, he has trouble putting his uniform on every morning, he needs to relearn how to use ODM gear in a modified way, he has to do an awkward version of the salute now, he struggles with how to maneuver and get himself clean in the shower for the longest until he comes up with a routine on how to do it one handed, he still has enemies so he has to rewire how he thinks of defending himself, he has to learn how to deal with this odd... phantom feeling of his missing arm still being there like in the stories he'd hear from injured soldiers. It's all hard, but he manages, braves through but he's very thankful to have you and so many close others at his side that are willing to help him through it.

Also misses holding your hand. During a meeting with Queen Historia, her Majesty speaking excitedly about her plans to help out orphans - specifically those from Underground, as Levi had made sure to suggest - that as the core members of the Survey Corps stood in audience, he couldn't help but to glance over at where you stood at one side of him, nodding supportively along to Historia's desires about letting the children have fun on her new acquired farm lands, that does he stare at you - at your hand more specifically, as you are standing at his side with the dangling green military coat sleeve. It's rude, he knows, not paying attention as the Queen speaks about her noble causes but he finds himself not being able to help it. For just a second - and maybe, probably, he's deluding this - but for a second he feels the empty sleeve move on it's own to graze at your hand as to grab it - immediately gaining your attention as you stare over at him with your gorgeous eyes that every time he looks at him he falls in love all over again, over and over and the way your head questioningly tilts as if to ask him if something was wrong does his throat turn dry but his lips slightly part until-

A rough kick comes subtly to his paralleled ankle at his other side, Levi. The Captain doesn't look at him, he just keeps his arms crossed over his chest and intently listens to Historia's plans, however, he quietly scolds under his breath: "Pay attention."

Right... he was being very rude. He shouldn't get lost up in silly stuff like this in such important professional times such as these. But... when you suddenly reach over and hold onto the sleeve just as it were his flesh hand only weeks prior, so sincerely and lovingly... he can't help but the dumb smile on his face.

Everything will be fine. He's still the same man. There'll be struggle, some more getting use to - afterall, it's only been a couple weeks if not a month. There's plenty of recovery time in the future, he knows it. After Shingashima, he decides, maybe then he'll take some time off - spend with you and truly attune himself with the lacking arm. And maybe... maybe if he practices a bit first with his still lack of balance... he can still properly get down on his knees and take out that heavy ring in his breast pocket and ask you that question that's been on his mind.

Hanji Zoë

Going to be perfectly honest, the missing eye is the least of Hanji's issues at the moment. It's still a struggle, yes, the now partial blindness that they have to now wear a patch over and it takes a couple weeks to properly get accumulated and not bumping into walls, doors, tables, and other stuff on accident. But it becomes something that's like second nature to the new Commander very quickly on.

Now... the sight isn't the issue. The mountain of other things that came with Shingashima is, both mental and physical.

The obvious is the new Commander position, taking over Erwin's role puts so much on their shoulders and not just that - having to put on this brave face for the only - ten, including themselves, Survey Corps members that survived that bloodbath. They're in charge, everyone's looking up to them them for advice, for orders, for their command. Meanwhile... Hanji hasn't even had proper time to grief for not just one but two of their best friends... Erwin. Moblit... that first night was the roughest, coming back home, to their now old office and practically broke down crying where you had to comfort them all night - they didn't sleep for the next four days straight. They stayed cooped in that office while everyone else was on leave to go properly recover and only let you attend to them. Hanji isn't... the same after that - and everyone notices but doesn't dare to speak on it. They aren't the quirky titan-obsessed quack anymore. They were the calculating 14th Commander of the Survey Corps, Hanji Zoë.

Hanji is also particularly deaf in their right ear now, even if they were - mostly - uninjured from the Colossal Titan nuke, the sound of the impact definitely damaged it a bit before they were tossed in deep the well by Moblit. They've never said the fact out loud to anybody, only you and Levi are aware of the fact, but they read lips more often than not now. So you make sure you always make it able to where they can properly read your lips when you speak to them, and if you can learn a bit of sign language that would also be very helpful.

Doesn't sleep as much as they used to. They say it's because they're too busy - Commander work and still helping out ironing out political matters and issues that still came with Historia's crowing as the new Queen of the Walls and the hectic readjustment period of getting Maria's old settlements rebuilt and ready for resettlement - but that's not just it. There's the nightmares now. Keeping them awake just to not wake them up screaming in the middle of the night and you have to loose sleep comforting them. They should be fine with it, they tell themselves, after all what they said back on that roof to Mikasa was true; they've seen hundreds of their comrades die - no actually, not a hundred... too many more than that to count. And each time they've been strong about it... distracting themselves in their research not to let themselves dwell on it too long. But now... no matter how hard they tried, nothing worked. Maybe it's because it was Erwin and Moblit, the closest two other people they had besides you and Levi. Or maybe it's because only ten fucking people out of the entire fucking Regiment survived that damn day.

And now that the truth is out there, what titans actually are, titan research isn't fun anymore. They could very easily drag one in a captured area and poke amd prod and maybe learn a little bit more on how the transformation process actually works - Connie Springer's mother would be a good example but just looking at that boy they can't bring themselves to even suggest it - but they don't. They just... sign off on papers all day. Try not to think about overseas that much. Not yet anyway.

Things are slightly better by the time you've made contact with the volunteers and the core Scouts had made their way to embark on Marley. Seeing new sights, new people, new inventions none of you could possibly even dream of was quite thrilling. Hanji has a great time, holding onto your hand and sporadically yapping on and on about this "car," or this "tele - phone," or this "controllable electricity." in the exact same manner and way they use to about titans - that wide shit eating smile that goes from ear to ear plastered to their face for the first time in years you love to see as you nod along and just listen and let them ask Onyankopon every possible question that comes to their head - the man having trouble even keeping up with them. It's nice while it last... but it's not too long until the 14th Commander comes back when reminded about why you're all here in the first place...

It's late at night one night, the night before you were all supposed to go back to Paradis does Hanji stare up at the ceiling of your shared room in the Azumabito astate. They have their eye patch off - feeling comfortable around you for you to see the mangled socket that normally rests underneath - as they lie back in bed and listen to you shuffle around to get into your night-wear to get ready to join them.

"I'm thinking..." They finally speak, you look back over your shoulder at them - sprawled out on messy sheets with only wrapped circuit of bandages around their chest to hide the shape. "...I'm thinking that Armin should be my successor. What you think?"

You tell them he's a smart kid, very talented at what he does but... given, past history... you express your feelings that it might be a lot to put on him, given the position of it's weight. Erwin's weight. Erwin's impact. Hanji's impact.

Yeah, probably true, they tell you. And they reminisce on how they felt when Erwin had dropped the sudden bombshell on them... God. They were turning more into him everyday... but you crawl over to the bed and start to kiss their face before the Commander can sulk in it. You love them, you tell them that every chance you get and it never fails to leave a gentle look in Hanji's remaining eye, their expression softening. They joke, saying how much you probably miss the old up-beat crazy Squad Leader Hanji... but you shake your head, hands so loving on their face as you tell them straight up you love them now just as much as you did back then - damaged and all.

Without hesitation they ask you to marry them.

Levi Ackerman

Hard. Very hard at first. He can only particularly see, for the first year or so his stitches itch to a very grading degree, he has only eight digits on his hands where using the left is... very difficult, especially with his unique ways of holding things, and he can't walk. Humanity's strongest - that ridiculous title... now look at him. He "entered" the Survey Corps ten years ago and now every single person around him then is dead - except you. During those first few days of the Rumbling he didn't really think about it - with all the shit going on he had other things to think about than have time to really... process. But here he is now, couple days after the "Battle of Heaven and Earth," as he's hearing people call it. Now in his time to heal does it really set in. And at first he doesn't take it... well.

Once he's well enough to be off bedrest and he's in that "damn chairwheels," you and Onyankopon manage to buy him (hard to come by given how... very much damaged the world still is post Rumbling) you're going to have to have to keep your eye on him because for the first couple weeks he will try to get up and walk around - only damaging his hurt leg more. He feels restricted in it, he wants to go where he damn well pleases - you tried crutches for a while but... he's actually too short for the ones you manged to find post Rumbling, so he's left to that chair. It just takes him time to get use to, that's all. Eventually though, months after the Crisis has been over, it's when you start taking him out places - steering him through the rebuilding cities of Marley, talking about God knows what, that he starts to come around... maybe it's not that bad, annoying, sure, but he feels a lot calmer now. Those kids - Gabi and Falco, they help too. Sometimes they drive him around but he isn't exactly the biggest fan when they clumsily knock him into shit though but they're cute kids, they remind him a lot of much younger versions of Isabel and Farlan, how they'd bicker all the time...

The two of you have a cabin together in Marley, a nice cozy cabin that with the help of Onyankopon - who smuggily calls himself a bit of 'builder' - is modified a bit so that it's more accessible for Levi to move around, plenty enough ofvplace to roam so he doesn't feel couped up like he expressed he didn't want when getting the place. It's nice though, Levi's never had a real house before - only somewhat exception being that dingy little apartment he and Kenny used to live in Underground and then he lived with Farlan and Isabel in it too before joining the Corps. Besides that it's always just been either a whorehouse, military base, or temporary spots he wouldn't even shit in. All shared spaces. Not something that was... his. Though of course he lives with you, you are his s/o but you're different. No, he lived... with you. You own this house together. It's his. It's yours. It's yours (plural).

He can't clean as properly as he use to, getting down on the ground and scrubbing top to bottom and every single crack in the room, of course he can't do that anymore so - and to make him feel better, feel good and comfortable in your own home together you do it, you keep the place always spotless. And he still wants to actively clean of course, the process has always been therapeutic for him, he just can't do it as thorough as he once did but he still will do what he can from the confines of sitting down while you do all the very high and very low lifting.

His senses are still sharp, even with his half blindness. But even still, you always make sure to stand on his good side and if your on the blind you make sure to audibly announce your presence even if he could probably still sense you - Ackerman biology boosting it by tenfold, after all - you do it because it's polite and he does appreciate that.

Mostly handles things with his good hand anyway but is in the habit of dropping things whenever it comes to his less-good one, there's only so much you can do with only three fingers (including thumb) on one hand without being issues. It takes awhile before he even let's you hold that hand again and when he does the first several times he always hesitates, but it all flutters away when you carefully and gently intertwine your fingers with his good ones and your pointer and middle finger lovingly folds over his numbs. Or when you kiss delicately at each of his knuckles on that hand... it's weirdly sweet, weirdly romantic, he thinks.

It's been three years now. Domestic bliss is something Levi never thought existed - or he he did, never, never ever in his thirty-seven year life would he ever think he'd get to live such a thing. The two of you sit in front of the lake off to the side of your cabin, sitting on a lunch-bench watching on as Gabi and Falco are completely red in the face, awkwardly and loudly confessing their feelings to one another in only that embarrassingly sweet way teenagers could. It's sweet... to watch on. You look over and see the small, subtle yet warm, soft smile on Levi's lips. Proud of them, those two dumb kids that's been helping the two of you out for years now. You laugh, causing him to look over at you.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing,"

The giggling in your chest dies down as you watch as the two kids untactfully bump their faces together in an attempted kiss but Falco jolts back holding his forehead in pain, and Gabi's face to turn an even darker red as she yells something at him.

"Do you think we're too old now to act like that?"

Grey eye rolls. "When have I ever acted like that?"

"Oh I can name quite the few times when we first first started dating-"

He suddenly grabs at your face with a: "Hush." before kissing you, the worn stitches on his lips against yours always feel nice. Then he leans back, staring at you with lingering thoughts before his eye flicks back over to the kids now sweetly in each other's arms.

"You know, I was going to ask you something today but those brats decided to go ahead and make it about themselves..." He says, no real malice in his voice, just teasing. But you tilt your head out of curiosity.

"Ask me what?"

He sits back on the bench and stares out onto the lake. His wheelchair is parked off to the side, it's in a bag. He could reach over and pluck it out now. It was something he actually picked out years ago... something he never thought he needed because he never expected to reach this point together with you but Hanji talked his ear off into buying it and Erwin gave him this... teasing encouraged look with that weird smile of his that he'll never forget for the rest of his life. And he's kept it with him, all the time, it's always been on him in some shape or form. Honestly he wasn't sure how you didn't manage to find it already.

He looks back over to you and you're still intently staring back over at him. Maybe. Maybe he still could now.

"Ask me what?"

If you like what you read please consider reblogging! It means the world for writers and artists!

[redravenblogs]

I can't stop thinking about what an incredible episode "Children of Time" was in how it explored a number of the characters, and I might expound on them later, but I'm particularly transfixed with Odo's arc. For the entirety of the series up to this point, his two defining personality traits are his sense of justice and his profound loneliness, and the writers used both of those to deliver a precision gut punch to the audience.

That profound loneliness is magnified in this 200-years-older version of Odo. He has been waiting and hoping for so long for this brief chance to see Kira again. He probably couldn't even hold his form when she died in his timeline, so he never had the opportunity to tell her how much she mattered to him, or even to say goodbye. He's been living with that for two centuries.

In light of that, what does the staunchness of his past self matter? What did it ever get him? That's why he's so quick to tell her how much he loved her. Loves her.

They get to spend a precious day and a half together before she decides she must sacrifice herself, and he begins desperately and hopelessly trying to convince her not to. Then he asks her: would things have been different between us if you'd known I loved you all along?

When she says "maybe," you can see his heart fucking break all over again. Because he suddenly knows what was possible, even by the slimmest chance, but he's losing her all over again- she has to be thrown 200 years in the past to die so he and his society can continue existing.

And then she kisses him!

SHE is the one who leans in for it!!

And that's the turning point. Because he knows that if she and the rest of the crew make it back to DS9, his past self has a fighting chance to escape the loneliness that has always defined him. His other self has the possibility of something better, even if he is bound to lose her either way. That's why this other Odo is willing to eliminate himself and everyone else on the planet from existence in order for Kira to live. So when everyone else is planning on a noble self-sacrifice, he chooses to be selfish for once.

(Arguably, making it so that 8000 people never existed isn't the same as killing them - one of the big moral quandries of the episode, but I wonder if Odo wouldn't have burned that whole planet to ashes if that's what it took to save her.)

When our Odo is linked with by the alternate timeline Odo, he suddenly knows everything. He knows every single person that lived on that planet. He knows the pain of living for 200 years filled with a regret and loneliness unlike he'd ever experienced before. He knows the fate he narrowly escaped (and was utterly helpless to have any control over). And he suddenly knows what it's like to kiss the woman he's been in love with for ages! And he understands. Because now he also knows hope. A hope so wonderful and so terrible that the other Odo would go to such great lengths for it.

That's why even in the face of Kira's outrage at the great injustice of it all, he can't give her a straight answer when she asks if he thinks what the other Odo did was right. Two hundred years of XP has just downloaded into his brain and is exerting its gravitational pull on his sense of just and unjust... Not to mention he's had his deepest secret revealed to the person who he least wanted to know.

Until now, he's never even opened his mouth about his own feelings because his sense of lawfulness extended to not even creating ripples on the surface of the social status quo. But he's suddenly been blursed with the understanding of how the other Odo has benefitted him. (Wingman of all time?)

The tension between what he's always thought is right and what his gut is telling him he wants now is so delicious to me. His sense of justice is suddenly much more flexible than he ever thought because of the possibility of not being lonely anymore. Finally belonging. It's maybe the most humanizing experience the audience has seen him go through - even more so than being stuck as a solid for a while, I think.

[jumpywhumpywriter]

A list of some of my favorite quotes and short scenes from my OC named Shadow, a morally gray anti-hero who is the snarkiest, whittiest, most sarcastic and badass person in my in-progress fantasy trilogy. I just love her brutal personality so much!

Let me know what all of your favorites are! 😁

1. "Nice try, but that stuff doesn't work on me, you useless white crayon."

2. "Come on, leave the poor guy alone," Tanner sighed heavily.

Shadow rolled her eyes with an exasperated groan. "He's the kind of stupid, that if I left him alone, he'd probably set water on fire."

3. "I'm gonna kill him," Shadow snarled angrily.

Thomas quickly stepped in front of her. "Shadow, no, you are not murdering anyone on my watch."

"Then look away."

4. "Where are you going?"

"Anywhere you aren't."

5. Shadow: "Open says me." *kicks door down*

Thomas: "Actually, it's open sesame."

Shadow: "Nope, other way around kid. You'll catch on eventually."

6. "Are you always this sarcastic?"

"My level of sarcasm has gotten to the point where I don't even know if I'm kidding or not."

7. "What brings you here?"

"A series of bad choices."

8. "Half of the human city wants you dead," Thomas tried to emphasize.

"Wow, a month ago it was the whole city, things are looking up," Shadow drawled sarcastically.

9. "I am nice until you give me a reason not to be." Shadow's voice was icy and gruff.

"Since when are you ever nice?" Thomas groaned.

"...Eh, fair point."

10. "You give my migrane a headache."

11. "Touch my daggers and I will punch you so hard even Google won't be able to find you."

12. "Guys, we have a problem!" Thomas panted for breath, bursting into the room.

"And it's another Tuesday, what's your point?" Shadow rolled her eyes.

13. "So, what do ya think? Good idea right?" Thomas gestured at the blueprints laid our on the table.

"Whatever floats your titanic." Shadow shrugged.

"...But the titanic sank."

"Yeah, just like your IQ did when you came up with that idea."

14. "If I go to war -- risk my life -- it's going to be because the odds are in my favor. Not otherwise," Shadow rumbled.

"So... it's not because you miraculously feel compelled to be noble and good for once?"

"...You have far too much faith in my moral compass, kid. It's almost scary how naive you are."

15. "Shadow, you have to help me! I had an accident."

"Had an accident? Kid, you are an accident.

16. "Ugh. How do people stand you?"

"They sit."

"You're insufferable."

"No more than you are."

"Would you stop coming up with comebacks and making me look like an idiot?"

"But you are an idiot."

"Ugh-"

17. "Interrupt me again and I'll interrupt your breathing."

18. "Is two a lot?"

"Depends on the context. Corpses? No. Living humans? Yes."

19. Shadow glared at Thomas. "You know, you probably shouldn't think too hard. Wouldn't want that poor overworked brain cell to have a panic attack."

20. "Yeesh, guess he's not the brightest light bulb," Tanner said with a wince, watching on the security feed as the Jackal guard tried for the fifteenth time to pick the lock on the door to the room Shadow had trapped him in earlier.

"You kidding me? The light bulb isn't even screwed in!" Shadow snarked.

21. Thomas: disagrees with Shadow

Shadow: "You've officially been promoted to victim." *Punches Thomas*

22. "I may be mad, or I may be less mad, but my mood will never be in your favor."

23. "Is that blood?" Thomas paled as he stared at the red smears staining Shadow's leather hero suit.

"No?"

"That's not a question you're supposed to answer with another question."

"Okay fine, yes -- but don't worry, it's not mine!" Shadow blurted.

"Is that supposed to be reassuring?!?"

24. "We have five people trying to kill us right now, what are we supposed to do?" Thomas squealed.

"Actually, it's more like eight," Shadow corrected.

"Oh, sorry I wasn't specific enough!!"

25. "That's not a happy story," Thomas muttered sympathetically.

"Well I don't live a happy life," Shadow growled in answer.

26. "What are you so afraid of?" Shadow challenged.

"You."

"Oh... That's fair."

27. "If your crazy plan gets me killed, kid, I am going to come back and haunt you so hard."

28. Shadow pinched the bridge of her nose with an inward groan. "I am way too sober for this."

29. "Okay, what did I do?" Thomas threw his hands up in defeat.

"What do you mean?" Shadow frowned.

"You look like you want to rip my head off."

"Sorry, that's just how my face works."

30. "Ugh, people don't understand that I literally don't know how not to walk around like I own every place I go to. I'm a walking war machine. How else am I supposed to act?!"

31. "So, uh, there's some bread in the cabinets if you're hungry," Thomas awkwardly offered.

"I don't eat bread, it's usually poisoned." Shadow wrinkled her nose.

"If this is some gluten-free nonsense--"

"No, actual poison."

32. "Come on, Shadow. The city needs our help. You're the strongest of us all -- imagine all the people you'll help save!" Thomas badgered.

"Correction, it needs your help," Shadow said through gritted teeth. "Leave me out of it. Humans can save themselves for once."

"...Please?"

"...Do I get wine after dealing with all the horrors of evil?"

"All the wine you want."

"Fine. But doing this is going to give me all the good karma points I'm going to need for the rest of my life."

33. "I'm not human. Remember that next time you want to punch me in the face."

34. "I guess I'll just have to be subtle about it," Thomas said.

Shadow snorted in amusement. "You are the least subtle person I know. Your "I have a secret" vibe is literally visible from mars."

35. "So, you're innocent?" Tanner raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Innocent as a young child... the kind they use as pickpockets," Shadow said with a dead-serious face.

36. "It costs you absolutely nothing to keep those rude comments to yourself," Tanner snapped angrily.

"It also costs me absolutely nothing to say them, so I think I'm good," Shadow retorted with a smirk.

37. "Can I bother you for a second?"

"You always bother me, but go ahead."

38. "I've met toddlers with more spine than you."

39. "Use your brain, idiot! You do have one, right?"

40. "Come on, it can't hurt to shake things up a bit, don't you think?" Thomas wheedled.

"I'm not anti-change, I'm just pro keeping things the way they are," Shadow growled.

41. "I've seen more formidable foes in temper tantrums."

42. "I'm not shy. I'm just examining my potential target and enemy. Determining friend or foe, you know?"

43. "Look, he's smiling. He's totally fine," Shadow smirked.

"He's smiling because he's terrified," Tanner said dryly.

"...I'm off-duty right now. Your turn to save the idiot."

44. "Wow, somebody needs a Happy Meal," Thomas grimaced.

Shadow glared daggers at him. "If you give me a 'Happy Meal', I will shove it down your throat to kill you and that is what will make me 'happy'."

45. "Shadow... did you have something to do with this?" Thomas cast her an accusing glance, and she bristled.

"Why is it that whenever something bad happens in the city, I'm always the first one you look at?!" She snapped indignantly.

"Because you're like... always sketchy and suspicious... and stuff..."

Shadow seemed to think about it for a second, before relaxing with a shrug. "Ouch. Valid, but ouch."

46. "This place hold a lot of memories for me. Some bad, some... No. No, no, all bad."

47. "Do I regret it? Yes. Would I do it again? Probably."

48. "I don't know what your problem is, but I'm guessing it's hard to pronounce.

49. "Remember when I asked for your opinion? That's right, I didn't."

50. "Thomas, if you had half a brain cell you'd be dangerous."

51. "If you pull out my earphones, I will pull out your lungs."

52. "I'm trying to tell about--are you even listening?!" Thomas huffed a frustrated breath of air.

Shadow merely raised an unconcerned eyebrow, yawning dramatically. "Don't worry, I'm listening to you. I'm just not paying attention."

53. "I'm on vacation. Only call if the world is about to end."

54. "Hmph. Mangy feather duster..." Thomas grumbled under his breath as he stalked off, forgetting that his ally had superhearing.

"What did you just call me?" Shadow snarled after him.

"You clearly heard me."

"And you clearly don't want to take the risk of saying it again."

55. "Sharp as a marble, that kid," Shadow sighed before coming to Thomas's aid. The blasted human never stopped getting himself in trouble, to her dismay.

Masterlist

Masterlist #2

@scoundrelwithboba @lumpofsand @isikedmyself878 @iamheretohurt @fleur-a-whump @otterfrost @sausages-things

[velvetwyrme]

oouuouua please make a follow up on the superhero pap x reader theyre one of my favorites also im excited to see tf fic from yuo

im glad you enjoyed it!!! i got a comment on it recently while i was thinking abt how to continue it and that seemed to click my brain into action LMAO

EHEHEHE hopefully! soon!! ive got a few things in mind but im also waffling over Really Starting because i have so many things ongoing but... auauugh the IDEAS plague me!!!!

also heres a sneak peek into my brain because im in the mood to chatter, but feel free to skip it if you so desire:

for Origin Story im LOOSELY planning any continuation/s to be kinda standalone stories all centered around a superhero trope (like the Origin Story ;]) because i think that could be fun to work with. i enjoyed writing some of the larger Undertale cast, something that i WOULD have liked to do in FF, except Edge and the MC in that are both pretty reclusive socially abfjfbdjdghkf,, oh well.

anyway. i have tons of ideas for the various tropes, so its really a matter of picking a place and Writing. i really want to feature more of Alphys in this because i love her dearly <3

as for TF fic... most of them are reader inserts unsurprisingly lmaooo but ive got a few non-reader inserts floating around there too. im kinda just throwin stuff at the walls of my mind to see what sticks, but heres a few of my draft titles for your perusing pleasure:

into the fire: noble-ish au with a human reader who is supposed to be gifted to one of the members of the household. reader makes a failed escape attempt torn bedsheet style and is saved :] inspired loosely by the visual novels i used to read/play back in high school LMAO. skeletiano, i will forever be sad i could not romance you.

between you, me and soundwave: reader writes rpf abt mechs on earth LMAO. i see people mention humans writing fanfic about Cybertronians in passing but i think itd be funny to put that at the forefront. extremely silly and low stakes fic. probably.

drift compatibility: mecha! pilot! au!! exists purely because i read 1 (one) fic about plugsuits and just went "hmnngh... mecha pilots are fun to imagine interacting with Cybertronians... also there's DRIFT compatibility... i can totally do some fucked up shit with that" and now it's spiralled wildly out of control because at some point i started thinking about Governments and Social Structures and got distracted with worldbuilding lol. i have many many many ideas and i can only hope i can string some of them together so I can EXPLODE it out of my brain either through writing or art. also theres smut that happens wayyyy down the line which ill probably end up writing first and posting separately LMAO

penance is a prison: my take on Titan AU but as a fic because my brain is so so full of thoughts abt this au. i'll probably just end up drawing a lot of these scenes instead but like. its there! partially written!! im emotions abt it!!!

self explanatory long title: human/borrower au constructicons/jazz/prowl poly. i love rare not-so-pairs a lot and im particularly fond of this set. also i just like thinking abt either jazz and prowl getting menaced by a bunch of tiny guys OR the opposite where a group of construction workers have two borrower roommates. this one is more just random idea dumps instead of a fic but still fun to think about LMAO

ALSO! MINI REC. while you wait for me to (eventually maybe) write TF fic, you should check out boostergoldishh's works on ao3 for some tasty tasty TF reader insert fics. im still planning on making a rec list but they updated today and im filled w/ much love for good writing.

and as a bonus if you got this far (thank you!!): the super secret draft chapter title for the next NEXT FF chapter because its pretty silly

if my cowriter sees this hi. ill share the doc soon but its pretty much empty, its just there to remind me whats coming next LMAO 👍

[picathartidae]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Wasn't tagged, but I saw @hyperions-light do this, and decided I wanted to play along because it looks fun and I never have the courage to talk about writing things. So here I am.

No pressure tagging;

@sandcastlekings, @derelictjunk, @shewolfofvilnius, @vestigialpersonality, @rinwellisathing

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

I’m up to 35 now, which is insane to me. Though I’m debating if I should delete one or two, so it may go down. I also mostly write shorts and oneshots, which is probably the main reason why the number is as high as it is.

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

508,114! Which is also insane to me.

3) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Most is Closer, the first of my two slightly trashy Miraculous Ladybug fics, by a long, long way. Then its sequel, Further. After that, it’s Song of Songs, for GreedFall. Then a couple of Dragon Age fics, Home is Where the Heart Is, and Field Dressing.

4) What fandoms do you write for?

Video games (specifically RPGs), almost exclusively. My main fandom is overwhelmingly Dragon Age, and that is once again my current hyperfixation, though I’ve also written a fair bit for GreedFall, and Baldur’s Gate 3 is persistently sticking around as well.

I just seem to like video games because they leave enough room for me to experiment with characters (which I love), without having to worry about plot (which I hate).

5) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I didn’t used to, unless someone was explicitly asking me a question, but I try to do it as much as possible now. It just didn’t occur to me that responding was a thing I could or even should do, until I was informed that it’s considered good practice to do so. Nowadays, I’m trying to make friends. And as much as I am shy and scared of judgement, you have to talk to people in order to do that.

6) What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I write a lot of angsty or otherwise bittersweet endings, but the saddest and most brutal is probably The Last Day (Dragon Age: Origins). Honourable mentions to both Kings and Psalms (GreedFall), though.

7) What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I’m going to say Father, which is the final entry in my trilogy about my human noble Warden in Origins, and serves as a little ending coda to his story. It’s cute! Especially given that this is me we’re talking about.

Edit: I foolishly didn’t consider To Save the World (Dragon Age: the Veilguard), which also has a very objectively happy ending, and is probably the sweetest fic I’ve ever written.

8) Do you get hate on fics?

Surprisingly, no. I have, through some divine miracle, managed to completely avoid getting any kind of hate for the entire fifteen years I’ve been posting fanfiction on the internet. Though I think if I’d left some of my oldest stuff up rather than deleting them, I might’ve seen some by now.

9) Do you write smut?

No. I am so intensely sex-repulsed it’s not even funny. I would rather turn myself inside out than ever willingly look at smut, let alone write it. Best I can offer is a supremely uncomfortable dissociative fit of a sex scene that is made up entirely of vague allusions and implications, or a fade-to-black. 

10) Do you write crossovers?

Once or twice, because I had an insane idea that I could not for the life of me let go of (basically just cramming the concept of the show Sense8 into Dragon Age: Origins, though we do not speak of that fic). I generally prefer to keep to one fandom. My autistic brain will only tolerate obsessive encyclopedic knowledge about one thing at a time, these days. 

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes, multiple times. I’m a little bit baffled by it, because I generally write genfic and otherwise niche stuff that doesn’t get a lot of traffic. The biggest and most egregious example was when my fic The Last Day was caught up in a mass-scraping a few years ago and ended up getting sold as an original story on Amazon.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have! Way back in 2017, someone asked for permission to translate my fic After (Dragon Age: Inquisition) into Russian. I don’t think the translated version can be found anymore, however.

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I haven’t! I’ve honestly never really had any writing or fandom friends to ask. I’ve been invited to participate in events in the past, but this was back when I was terrified of talking to people, and was too petrified to respond. Hopefully I’m braver now.

14) What’s your all-time favourite ship?

I don’t really enjoy shipping in general, and it’s very rarely how I engage with fandom. But if I was pressed to pick relationships I enjoy the most, it’d either be Scott Summers/Jean Grey from X-Men, or Astarion/Resist!Dark Urge from Baldur’s Gate 3.

15) What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Genesis (GreedFall), absolutely. Adore the concept, love the characters, utterly despise working on it. Now it is a monument to all my failures.

16) What are your writing strengths?

I don’t know, I think I’m decent with characters and dialogue. I’m reportedly very good at themes and making people feel things.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Description. I hate it. I write relatively canon-compliant fanfiction with the express purpose of getting the hell away from it. I also like run-on sentences way too much. Trying to write a nice natural ending to a scene or chapter has also historically been the bane of my existence. I famously suck ass at anything even vaguely romantic, because it’s all extremely gross and cringey to me.

18) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I don’t usually mess with that at all. If the perspective character understands the language being spoken, I’ll write out the dialogue in English, or otherwise summarise the conversation in prose. If they don’t, I’ll just describe people speaking without doing any dialogue at all. Too much potential to cause offence with my ignorance otherwise. I might include a single word here or there, if it feels important to the characters or setting.

19) First fandom you wrote for?

I remember dabbling in some eclectic stuff originally (like, Shakespeare and some of the classics, because I was insufferable), but what I consider my first actual proper attempt at fandom and fanfiction was for X-Men.

20) Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

You know, despite the fact that it’s currently actively killing me and everything I care about, I’m going to say Breathe (Baldur's Gate 3). Like, it’s such a chaotic experimental disaster of a fic, with an incredibly erratic writing style, a metric shit-tonne of repetition, constantly shifting tenses, featuring way too many dream sequences and the single most complicated traumatised mess of a protagonist I’ve ever put to paper, and accidentally mutated into genres I normally would never touch. It’s wild and violent and cerebral and dark and tragic and introspective and a constant source of stress because it's always a problem that needs to be solved and maybe the worst thing I have ever done.

And ignoring my current ongoing garbage destroying all of my ability and willingness to write, it’s the fic I’ve had the most fun writing in a long, long time. Also the fact that it’s one of those rare ones that has a couple of regular commenters despite my non-existent update schedule helps massively (hello, love you guys, thanks for enduring my insanity). The fact that I managed to put out over 30 chapters in a single year (this is unheard of for me) is a testament to how much it captured my imagination. I am hoping and praying and begging all the gods I know of that I will be able to see it through to the end.

[antenanotaic3]

TFP dub fails(Romanian dub here; I'm sharing my disappointment with the world)

Dunno why but I remembered the TFP dub for my country being better..

Except I checked it last night and besides Breakdown, Shockwave and Smokescreen, everyone was massacred. Oh and Silas and Fowler were fine among the humans.

I'm gonna list them as they come to mind:

-Starscream sounded very old dark and pertinent; I couldn't even listen to his voice for more than a few seconds because the mere association between that voice and Screamy scratched my ears. I'm being nice here

-Jack was a disaster. I can't even begin to describe what was wrong with his voicing. For starters.. the age was wrong, he seemed dead inside and spoke as if he kept on inhaling some substance. Raff was.. he seemed a bit fine at first but his voice would get weird and shaky and old lady like. And then Miko sounded like a lil sassy shopping spree lady that she isn't

-Knockout was just edgy af and Arachnid... Yk that mischievous, intelligent, suave, cheeky voice of hers that makes you(or at least makes me) slightly scared of her? It's all gone and replaced by another shopping spree girl, except with 50% more sass and the flavour of a femme fatale failed attempt which is the one trope I hate in cartoons with a passion

-OP may or may not have had some orange jam stuck in his throat; his voice was so bass and grave I couldn't take him seriously

-Megatron had the imemorabile voice of your regular cartoon villain except more clean and young???

-Dreadwing and Predaking had in common the most rugged voice in existence which made D sound like he had a terrible case of sore throat and Predaking... He was just pathetic in a way. Like a poorly voice acted goon. Nothing noble about him

-Ratchet and Bulkhead became younger and lacked flair. (young in the way that their voices would fit Jack or Smokescreen 😭)

-Arcee's voice was terribly edited to sound more cyberpunk or smth, I think in the attempt to make up for how bad the voice acting was and instead made it worse. She no longer had any warmth in her voice and sounded passive-aggressive all the time

-I can't even remember who it was, probably my brain tries to defend my ears, but one of the characters had the VA that our country had for Martha Speaks. Which was, in other words, obnoxious and playful. Playfully obnoxious. I couldn't get the association out of my head. I think it was June

-Cliffjumper sounded like a bratty cowboy who lived in the slums. Which doesn't not fit him exactly, but there was something off about it -so it came out as annoying

-Mags was.. dunno. It was a decent voice I think. But just like Raff's it had weird ups and downs. So for one second he sounds like a commander barking orders, the next like a crybaby

:v

I forgot about Hardshell tbh so ye that's life. I also didn't check Soundwave's only line because I was honestly afraid they destroyed him

BONUS: the VA picks weren't even the worst part. That would be the translation. A memorable moment of failure was in the episode when Smokescreen appeared and thought his 'plan' to blow up the Energon was good... The words Arcee used to criticize him were: "Era să ne faci chipsuri" or "You nearly turned us into chips" For being blown up. Yes 'chips' as in potato chips. No, we don't have that expression in the language. Me and my partner laughed at this way too hard

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 42 – The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Naylar

I honestly forget the specifics of the recommendation that made me toss this on my TBR pile, but I’m glad I finally got around to it. The book’s, I think, something of a noble failure, but that’s more a compliment than an insult. It tries to do enough and is reaching for big enough themes that its reach exceeding its grasp is hardly fatal.

The book’s set somewhere in the late 22nd century or so, in a world where climate just wasn’t apocalyptic but it sure does seem to have made things a lot shittier. The geopolitics are only vaguely sketched out, but everything all feels rather cyberpunk, down to the city-states and megacorporations with de facto extraterritoriality. The book’s primary plot follows Dr. Ha Nguyen as she’s hired by an incredibly sinister megacorporation to study what is potentially a species of octopus that has evolved to near-human levels of intelligence and social culture, aided by the world’s only android and a mercenary whose army of drone killbots keeps the perimeter secure. Two secondary plots running in tandem on alternating chapters follow Eiko, an abducted slave laborer on an industrial fishing trawler chasing the world’s last reserves of accessible maritime protein, and “Bakunin”, a hacker in Astrakhan hired by a contact right out of Shadowrun for the most difficult job of his life.

So the book is overwhelmingly concerned with communication or, especially, the difficulty and failure that accompanies attempts at it, and how vital connection and reaching out beyond oneself is anyway. It’s woven into pretty much every character arc and every plotline in a way that manages to keep form coming off as heavy-handed or didactic, which is honestly an incredible aesthetic accomplishment. It also doesn’t soft peddle things – connection isn’t portrayed as any sort of panacea, and real communication is hard, even when everyone involved is trying their best and approaching it in good faith. The last note of the octopus plot is not the creation of a working translator, or even a successful exchange of messages, but really just the successful exchange of the idea of messages, and the establishment of some sort of relationship between a human and an octopus.

Sort of related to that, the book’s also very big on the idea of connection, of being tied up in vast systems and affected by choices on the other side of the world by people you’ve never heard of who probably weren’t thinking of you at the time. There’s the two subplots, of course – and this is the rare occasion where having three stories running in tandem and only really intersecting at the very end feels like it really does work for me. But more directly there’s a great deal of time spent on the nature of an octopus’ intelligence and how each arm is almost an autonomous agent only intermittently checked and directed by the central brain – and how this is analogous to the latest and greatest generations of drone networks slowly revolutionizing the world, and to the nature of the corporations and institutions which dominate the world. This is doubly underlined, in something that’s just barely on the edge of too on the nose for me, by the fact that the automated trawler that has abducted Eiko and is eventually destroyed trying to intrude on the island sanctuary Ha is working on, is owned by a subsidiary of the same corporation that enforced the sanctuary and hired Ha in the first place.

Which is where the books starts running into issues, at least for me. Near the book’s climax, Ha has something of a revelation about violence; that it’s not exactly useful to resent or feel disgusted by the security officer keeping their island isolated and uncontaminated by destroying any of the automated trawlers that intrude on the perimeter, no matter how many slaves on board are killed in the process – after all, all her work relies upon exactly that violence, that her whole world is build on such violence as a matter of course. Something the book then just kind of, fails to ever really resolve, or do anything with? There’s the idea that this is bad and important to stop, but the book ends with everyone just, choosing to do so?

This is kind of tied into the wider issue of how the main plot resolves at all. The book had thoughtfully and carefully written itself into a corner, having clearly explained how the only reason why the megacorporation paying for the island to be kept as a nature preserve and these potentially intelligent octopoids to be studied was because they might be useful later on – because they might be studied and vivisected and pulled apart so that the understanding of their intelligence might fuel further advances in artificial intelligence. Dr. Mínervudóttir-Chan, the genius-CEO of the company, is something of an ideological nemesis to Ha, and the book’s themes generally.

And this is resolved by, well, basically a deus ex machina? The Buddhist Republic of Tibet, thanks to a monopoly on a particular advance in drone networking one of the wealthiest entities in the world, launches a hostile takeover of Mínervudóttir-Chan’s company and seizes the island to establish a true sanctuary, where all are welcome and no exploitation will occur (Mínervudóttir-Chan herself is helpfully killed in a conveniently random act of meaningless interspecies violence). They seem driven to do this entirely by pure idealism, with the book giving no signs that we’re meant to be skeptical of this theocratic nation state with an economy-driving military-industrial complex or the purity of its motives. I could go on about this, but lets just say that the unevenly applied cynicism rang a bit false to me, in a way that fundamentally weakened the book’s whole resolution a great deal. Enough to take this from one of my favorite reads of the year to something that I still very much enjoyed but was left pretty deeply unsatisfied with, anyway.

Speaking of cynicism – the book’s characterization of conservation was (all-loving Buddhist cybernetic kill-teams aside) surprisingly sharp and bitter? The two visions of it the story provides are either a formality that exists only on paper, with underpaid rangers enthusiastic participants in the lucrative smuggling of whatever rare species are being conserved and whose trade is the by far the most vital part of the local economy, or else something imposed from a distant center with overwhelming force, and local human inhabitants being forcibly deported or harshly punished to preserve the nature park for the benefit of outside money and power. Was an interesting sort of perspective on the subject, anyway.

As a stylistic note, this book made probably the best use of the whole ‘start each chapter with a quote from an in-universe text’ conceit I’d every seen. Each chapter starts with an excerpt from one of two texts – How Oceans Think, a work of speculative and philosophical xeno-neurology that made Ha’s career and made her the specialist brought in for the plot of the book, and Making Mind, the pop science memoir by Mínervudóttir-Chan detailing her creation of Evrim (the aforementioned world’s first real android). They both serve double duty as wonderful bits of characterization for each character (Making Minds provides several times as many words by or features Mínervudóttir-Chan as her actual appearance in the narrative, something which I’m inclined to call a bit of a failure, otherwise) and establishing the sort of thematic dialectic at the core of the book.

I’m especially fond of the fact that Mínervudóttir-Chan’s never really made a cartoon villain or personally vicious. She’s a genius, driven woman, heroic in the classical, world-remaking sense. And what she wants (needs, really) is mastery over the world. You don’t have to be personally cruel or ill-intentioned for that to leave the world a ruin around you. She is, frankly, exactly the sort of monster I’d have loved to spend a book in the head of.

Evrim as a character was also fascinating. Partially just because I am always an incredibly easy mark for alienated and isolated inhuman intelligences being portrayed as sympathetic-to-heroic, and both the fantasy and terror of a literally perfect memory is an amazing central trait for a character. But also there’s a conversation between them and Ha about what it means to be human, and Ha’s proposed answer – to participate in the shared symbolic world of humanity, or something like that – seems elegant enough I’m probably going to steal it for some thing.

Anyway, yes, generally loved the book, sadly to a large degree the final resolution let everything that was building up to it down. Still would call it a worthwhile read, though. It’s thematically cohesive without being overly didactic in a way I find elegant and pleasing, and don’t necessarily see much in a lot of genre fic.

[goldensunset]

i’m not about to draw a minimum of twelve entire pictures but i wanna do this anyway (i guess i could just edit the images in there but that’s lame lol)

•my favorite gym leader is probably either tulip or clay! something about tulip i just always found very endearing and respectable and i love clay’s no-nonsense attitude and sheer strength. plus he gets bonus points for his daughter being lacey

•fav champion is clearly volo. like how could you not classify that as a champion fight. that was so freaking hard man. runner up goes to kieran though bc he was also really hard for me. but of course if we’re talking official true pokémon league champions then cynthia

•fav elite four member has gotta be lacey. i adore her. first time i’ve ever lost to the same opponent multiple times in a fair fight (aka being prepared and on-level). she’s sooo cute and fun! she also terrifies me severely

•favorite protagonist is akari no surprise there. la does such a good job of making it clearly important why the protag is the protag. it offers a legitimate in-universe explanation as to why this one child in particular is so much more powerful than all the others. out of place in time and space, literally chosen by a god… the way certain characters question her humanity, both in a good and evil way… it’s so good

•favorite rival… well pokémon fans use the term rival really loosely. it can mean any friend character that you battle for funsies even once. it can mean literal arch nemesis. idk. arven stole my heart with his story but i don’t consider him a rival like most people do so that goes to cheren. i love his story and he has also mopped the floor with me several times

•favorite antagonist is also volo next question. i’m sick in the head about him. n is a strong and clear second place obviously though. i’ve done enough rambling on here about them

•professor laventon is the guy ever he feels like he actually personally cares about akari so much. that’s her dad. the way he’s actively involved in plot stuff, he accompanies the team on field missions even when he really doesn’t need to… he’s always there. you see him a lot. and he’s clearly writing the pokédex entries himself and they’re absolute gold. but seeing as professor is also a broad term because they’ve been really breaking up the older tradition in recent games, i nominate director clavell as second place bc i respect the guy a lot. that old man (tm) enjoyer here

•fav battle facility leader… well. i don’t really have one bc i’ve done very little with the battle facilities in the two games i’ve played that had them lol. so i guess throwaway answer is ingo but mostly for pla reasons. actually i think he counts as a battle facility leader in pla with the daybreak update and i’ve done some of his stuff so he does in fact count for me

•for fav clan member i’m gonna say arezu i like her a lot. she tried doing the right thing in a very chaotic way and i respect her for her efforts. plus her design is cute and she gives great haircuts and her noble is adorable

•character from other media… well i’m obsessed with the way n is portrayed in pokespe. perfect blend between sad prettyboy and freak behavior. they just made everything so intense. and i love oshawott from poképark 2 with the way he’s trying so hard to be serious and cool but snivy keeps getting on his nerves lol. that’s the reason i chose oshawott in pla bc that was the only of those pokémon i recognized

•i’m classifying arven as miscellaneous bc like i said i don’t consider him a rival but MAN!! man… this guy just got shortchanged so many times but i’m glad he was able to get closure for his parents’ disappearance and death and that he can move on and just live his own life. also certified dog lover moment

•top fav character… yeah you all know it’s volo LOL. completely shrimp fried my brain. the absolute hyperactive high i was on when he revealed himself. made even more insane bc i had literally been spoiled that he was a twist villain but i had no other context so i was just waiting the whole game for him to be evil. imagine the sinking in my gut when the credits rolled and it didn’t happen i thought i’d been embarrassing myself the whole time but then the postgame punched me in the gut HARD. i thought he’d end up being like the sad sympathetic frenemy guy where you don’t really want to fight him but NOPE full on evil full on he was just using you. made even better by the context that he had been your biggest fan throughout the whole game while everyone else had been suspicious of you. i lost my entire mind. once again second place to n though

[lollytea]

I originally started following after the first trolls movie.

You haven't posted trolls in the while and maybe you don't keep up with the media at all.

but if you do, it would scratch an itch in my brain.

What do you think of Guy Diamond's son, Tiny Diamond? Like Jade vs Tiny Diamond is kind of a whiplash huh?

What do you think of branch's brothers????? I'm just so curious b/c ur headcanon content is very tasty to me.

Haha! All of my trolls brainrot has been effectively purged. The kind of things that I'm interested in have varied so far elsewhere that I really can't sink my teeth into this franchise the way I did when I was 19. Its a universe that doesn't really take itself all that seriously and functions on saccharine surrealism, which is fun to watch for an hour and a half, but I can't really get invested in it. Its just not what I vibe with anymore. And if I'm just not interested in staying long in the world the characters inhabit, I'm just not gonna think about it much.

But! I do watch the new trolls movies when they come out, mostly cuz I love Poppy and Branch and its always nice to see them again. I appreciate that they've remained three-dimensional characters throughout all three films, and their wide range of emotions are taken seriously, in spite of the overall goofy tone of the movies. And as I said, the world itself can be fun to sit in for an hour and a half.

Nobody needs to know my overall thoughts on trolls 3. But the short version is that I didn't really like it and will probably never watch it again. But there was a lot of talented designers, writers, animators etc. involved and I like to appreciate the bits of magic they brought to it.

Tiny Diamond is....certainly a bit. His character is just. Being a bit. It's not a bit I find all that funny (baby with a grown man voice), so I really don't feel anything about it. Except for Guy Diamond giving birth out of his head, like the King of the Gods, producing his noble daughter Athena. I feel a lot of indescribable emotions about that.

Diversity win! The trolls franchise has mpreg!

Anyway, point is, Tiny Diamond was the first of MANY characters that the sequel films fired at us. It's made it all feel....a bit crowded. There's just a lot of bitches to keep track of. And they dump all of them out in front of you in the span of one film that it's hard to get particularly attached to any of them.

I don't even have anything to say about Jade, except I was transparently more into the characters than the world when I was 18/19. Jade was an OC that existed (almost) solely in the Human AU. I didn't give a shit about troll Jade obviously. I didn't develop him all that well and have no real emotional attachment to him anymore, so I don't really feel anything about Tiny Diamond becoming his Canon counterpart. Tbh I think it gave me an interesting glance in the mirror. With Jade, I had strayed very very far from the trolls' goofy ridiculous vibe. The introduction of Tiny Diamond was a humbling experience agsbdjnk.

I quite like Branch's brothers! It's the kind of info that makes me wish they revealed Branch had brothers seven years ago when I was going absolutely insane about trolls. I love sibling relationships. I would have had so much fun with it. Like throwing new toys into a baby's playpen.

But unfortunately the info has dropped in 2023 and I am 25. Sad face.

But still, Branch's brothers are neat. I like that their designs are all distinct but they still have the family resemblance you'd expect of brothers. I like that John and Bruce are fat. I like that Clay is all gangly and peaky looking. I like that they're all well meaning but kinda unintentionally dickish for refusing to acknowledge Branch as anything but a baby. I like that Floyd was a very sweet nurturing big brother and Branch still has a soft spot for him twenty years later. I like that Floyd is a twink. Yippee.

I think Bruce is my favourite, mostly cuz I had the most fun during his segment of the film. I love the puppet land. I love his big puppet wife and puppet children.

To be honest, as soon as I finished watching the movie, I began losing memories of it at a rapid rate. This is just what I remember. Okay byeeee <33

[hadoriel]

Hi hello my friends and super nerds

I would like to write or do something with a Spy x Family + His Dark Materials crossover... aka ‘what if the Forgers had daemons’ scenario. I’m not great at form finding, especially on fictional characters, so I really hope some daemians can help me out .w.

I’m gonna preface this with two things: - I personally believe daemons would react to trauma and stress in bizarre ways. Most of the cast of SxF is severely traumatized so uh there’s some fun I want to do, like Twilight having never settled, Anya’s never taking a ‘real’ animal form etc - I’d ideally like a mix of symbolic and realistic form stuff. I haven’t been in the HDM/daemonism community too much for a good decade now, but I’ve seen some people say they’re different things so uh... I’d like to just blend it

Twilight (Loid + [REDACTED]): Due to the massive trauma early in life, his daemon has never settled. It basically gives him the master of disguise superpower easily, as it’s extremely rare (and bad!) when that happens. Even so, not many people know of it, just some WISE higher-ups like Sylvia, maybe Franky As Twilight, he’s very independent, detached, meticulous, solitary, detail-oriented, with a brain moving a mile a minute. His ‘default’ form would reflect this. As Loid, however, he’d need something more gentle and approachable, that cares deeply for family, but still very intelligent The fun part would be that he doesn’t realize he’s settling slowly by acting as Loid. I’m not sure if he’d really fit exactly what Loid’s persona daemon is, but we know ‘on the inside’ he’s very loyal, manipulative, crazy smart, anxious

Yor: We don’t know exactly what happened to Yor’s parents, but I think it was likely around settling years (onset of puberty). Having to take over an adult role for Yuri, I’d think she settled early and suddenly. She’s also fiercely loyal (even more than Twilight), cares deeply for family, worried about not being normal enough or not being good enough constantly, act first think later, scary when threatened When we first meet her, Yor’s daemon would be sickly, skinny, mottled. But through the story, they’d get healthier

Anya: Since Anya’s a child, she doesn’t have a defined form yet. I do want to note that, since she’s a human experiment, something is still very wrong with her daemon, though. I’m mostly going with that her forms are always mythical animals and chimeras, never a ‘real’ animal, but open to feedback if anyone thinks something different?

Yuri: His is ‘normal’... relatively. He probably also settled early but not weirdly or suddenly. He’s obsessive, overly protective, uses intelligence as power, aggressive, absolutely dedicated, only vulnerable to their loved ones

Franky: Probably the most normal daemon situation in the whole cast tbh. He’s a jokester but very smart and weirdly wise. He’s like the most typical ENTP ever, if you know your MBTI. Social and savvy, but not very charming

Sylvia (Handler): Her daemon would be quiet and stoic with an aggressive side. She’s a mentor and a leader, who deals with the unfortunate ugly situations, so she’s very dedicated and hard working. There’s a softer side to her, but rarely seen. Not as tunnel-vision as Yuri at all, but probably a form in the same vein

Nightfall (Fiona): Super quiet, super dedicated, super antisocial and unemotional. Except that she’s obsessed with Twilight, of course, just that she never shows it ever. I have an idea that her daemon likes to make ‘weirdly aggressive’ moves at Twilight’s, like laying on them, which Twilight is always slightly alarmed by but it’s just Fiona’s very miscommunicated adoration lmao

Donovan: He’s severed. Nobody knows this. They just think his daemon hides in his suit all the time

Damian: Wants to settle asap and tries to take ‘noble’ forms like lions and wolves and eagles, due to pressure

Becky: Is weird and tries to put accessories on her daemon. The forms are always extra pretty animals

Okay so now that I kinda wrote down the jist of the cast... Anyone wanna help me with form finding for them? .w.;;;;;;;;;;

[grapecaseschoices]

For the tav backstories ask, how about 3, 7, 17, 23 for all of your tavs hehe (also jsyk I’m gonna properly answer your ask for these after work since I answered the wrong ask game lmaoooo)

[no pressure!! but yay!]

3. Who was your Tav raised by?

Wow you're really making me think!

Sekryd: I think by local guild members, my brain wants to say this. I'm doing a quick and dirty research run and it seems Gold Dwarves don't like anyone, in short. Except each other and mostly humans. LMAO.

I think her parents were traveling merchants. She didn't always travel with them but sometimes she did. When she was left behind in BG I think the guild as a whole helped raise her. Various aunts and uncles and piblings by heart if not name. Mostly though, it was an much older aunt that she saw as a grandmother.

Adair: His nanny on paper, but xyr's servents in reality. Mom was occasionally around and active. But it was mainly her nanny a nd the butler.

Orfeo: Himself. The streets? the occasional sympathetic and/or taking-advantage-of-a-hungry-urchin shopkeep. the occasional sympathetic and/or taking-advantage-of-a-hungry-urchin crimimal. But usually other street kids. But mostly himself.

Kaeliana: I'm still trying to feel around on the durge bg and what I want to work for her. Fel, of course, was one of the people. But I think she had foster or adopted parents for a time -- they were good people. I feel before that maybe a group home?

Integrity: His older sister and an elderly aunt for a time. [This may change but it works; definitely leans towards his protectiveness for tiefling women. Especially the ballsy ones.]

Andy: Too many people. If you could call some of it "raising". People who saw him as either an obligation or a tool. But the people who really raised him were his parents, for a time, and then his older cousin.

Kendis: Her parents and her brother.

7. Did your Tav travel a lot pre-tadpole?

Sekryd: Moderately. Mostly around BG. Mostly for business outside of it. She has passing familiarity with parts of the areas around her city. Waterdeep, Candlekeep. Been to the Sword Coast once.

Adair: To a couple of places extensively but not in the way xe is now. Mostly was a "homebody", in the sense that they had to be at home due to responsibilities [Noble, you see]. But, of course, would visit other nobles and etc.

Orfeo: [This may change] But I feel he was JUST starting out. He probably made out around the city and surrounding areas and was just venturing outward before he was snatched.

Kaeliana: She doesn't remember ... jk. Yes. Seems that Durge got busy and bloody.

Integrity: For a time. Before the hermit life. Call it the indiscretion of youth.

Andy & Kendis: Yes. Andy mostly lmao. Vengeance path!

17. What’s your Tav’s worst childhood memory?

Sekryd: Some other child, maybe another kid of a guild member, borrowing a book of hers and basically returning it like shit.

Adair: Her grandfather didn't really acknowledge her existence [but he was the only child of his beloved - though rebellious - eldest daughter]. But one time he invited her to an event, she was very excited. However, the night was -- not the best ... xe was used to people's muttered comments but usually they never stared xyr down. I guess it's different among your grandfather's people vs other nobles. The cherry on the cake was her drunk grandfather who left for home without her.

Orfeo: Just one?

Kaeliana: Blood. Blood. Bloodbloodbloodblood. She wish she could say it was that but that group home was the pits. Strangely she remembers THAT.

Integrity: Other than the racism, it was good. Most of his horrid memories started at their later teenhood [still a child, arguably. and yes they would argue.]

Andy: Man. ROFLMAO. Where do we begin~~ But no. It will always be his parents. His parents went on a trip and the boat disappeared.

Kendis: When their parents left her behind in the grove. They understand the reasoning, but it doesn't make what happened around it any better. For a time she thought they had died.

23. Share any hcs/anything you want to say about your Tav’s backstory

Sekryd: I believe has a skilled hand with a hammer. She will read. Anything. May be my most curious. That's saying something given Andy, Kendis, and Integrity are in the lot.

Adair: Is surprisingly a guile hero. Surprising because xe tends to lean straightfoward and blunt regularly. But I suppose facing fiends and ogres require the same silver tongue as dealing with nobles. I also picture him dedicated to his people [who have warm up to her and some also are protective].

Orfeo: He tried his hand at criminality [if yall were gonna arrest him for being poor, why not actually do something worth it yeah?]. But not really for him; far too cut throat [towards him .... and you know, maybe other people. Maybe he cares about that too.] Still. He has his moments and remembers some things.

Kaeliana: I haven't reached it all in Act 3. But I think before Orin got her, Kae was starting to wonder. Starting to have a change of heart. Before Wyll. I think it was from being a paladin.

Integrity: I put outlander in his bg but he's a Hermit. He left his grove/people/wte. Fuck them druids.

Andy:

Tremble for yourself, my man You know that you have seen this all before Tremble, little lion man You'll never settle any of your scores

Your grace is wasted in your face Your boldness stands alone among the wreck Now learn from your mother or else Spend your days biting your own neck

Kendis: Very much still dead not-gf central.

[2af-afterdark]

What do u think about the kinks of the noble devils? Some of them are normal but some of them are.. out there to say the least lmao (Leraye I'm looking at u..)

Oh gods. Another long one. Buckle up everyone! *comes with definitions so everyone is on the same page here

Satan

Spanking is... spanking.

It's baby's first bdsm kink. A bit of light spanking feels like it's becoming more mainstream over time (not bdsm exclusive).

Honestly? I expect Satan to have bolder kinks. He's a sadist, so there is waaaay more he could do.

Mammon

Pygophilia is a sexual attraction to butts.

I didn't even know this was a kink, per se. Attraction to butts is so commonplace that I didn't think it was a paraphilia.

He's living his best life though. Go him!

Beelzebub

Olfactophilia is a paraphilia characterized by sexual arousal caused by smells and odors emanating from the body.

Can relate. I have a mild one. Your partner's natural smell can be very arousing.

Leviathan

Breath control is the intentional restriction of oxygen to the brain for the purposes of sexual arousal.

SWEET SUBBY BOY HAS A HARD KINK. ONE OF THE HARDEST KINKS.

Seriously, I love him and hoe happy he looks when he's getting choked. And! And! He wants it done properly! Harder! Fuck me!

Seriously, this is a very risky kink and I adore him for living for it.

Sitri

Cardiophilia is an erotic fixation on the human heart/cardiovascular system.

He wants to hear the moment his victim's heart stops beating and that's sexy in an absolutely terrifying way.

Low-key imagine he lies his head against his partner's chest as he fingers/jerks them off just to enjoy their errotic erratic heartbeat.

Leraye

Keraunophilia is an abnormal attraction of lightning or thunder, which can lead to arousal from thunder and lightning

The poor man is getting all the side glances on this blog. Lol

It was stated he thinks his gun sounds like thunder, so I understand his position (since he's a devil of wrath)

Still an... interesting kink. Not sure how he gets that in the bedroom? Does he use a sound machine or something?

Astaroth

Narratophilia is a sexual fetish in which words and stories are sexually arousing, usually by the telling of dirty and obscene words or stories to a partner.

Me too, fam. I have a violent voice kink so I understand him. Hearing that sexy voice tell you dirty stories? Even better!

Paimon

Haematophilia is a sexual fetish for blood

I am 0% surprised. It's probably the most common kink in Gehenna.

Does that make Paimon a basic bitch? 🤔

I mean, bloody nose panels in manga are hot, so I kind of get it in a way.

Zagan

Kinesophilia is a paraphilia where the sexual arousal hinges around human movement and exercise.

Zagan watches TikTok exercise thirst traps, confirmed. That, or parkour is his version of porn. Or is he the kind of man who works out then needs to fuck immediately afterward?

As a certified couch potato, I apologize to Zagan.

Dantalian

Autassassinophilia is a paraphilia where a person becomes sexually aroused by fantasizing their own death by the hands of another.

I have to wonder how violent these fantasies get, because... does he just want to die or does he want to die violently? Does he have a favorite fantasy? DOES HE ACTUALLY WANT TO DIE TO THE ANGELS????

He seems to be more into the fantasy than the real thing given how he keeps living.

Phenix

Morphophilia is characterized by a sexual interest in another who has greatly varying body proportions to oneself.

Size difference kink or into chub as a kink? Both? Both.

Morax

Stigmatophilia is a type of sexual attraction to piercings and tattoos.

I mean, piercings and tattoos can be hot. Not my kink, personally, but I get it.

Personally I think he should be into bandaids and antiseptic more...

Marbas

Merinthophilia is a sexual fetish in which one is sexually aroused by being tied up with rope or similar material.

Aroused 24/7 given he's always tied up.

I wouldn't mind putting some pretty ropes on a guy that buff. Especially given my headcanon that he's a secret gentle giant to MC.

Barbatos

Heliophilia is an attraction to the sun.

Is there a sun in hell? What sun is he looking at? Do you think he's more into the light or the heat?

Honestly, I don't get this one. You do you, boo, but I do not understand.

Foras

Scopophilia is an aesthetic pleasure derived from looking.

Fancy name for a voyeur. My fictional feelings and my irl feelings on this are different.

Irl, I'm cool if it's consensual. It can be hot to play like you're hiding as you watch someone or to "catch" someone watching you. If it's no consensual, gross.

Fantasy? FUCKING HOT! Go off! Enjoy your show!

It also has great angst potential.

High-key think Foras pines after Leviathan

Bimet

Timophilia is a primary arousal from gold or wealth.

0% surprised. Man would probably fuck a pile of money if he could.

Findom? Findom!

Bael

Olfactophilia is a paraphilia characterized by sexual arousal caused by smells and odors emanating from the body.

See Beelzebub.

Is this kink actually his or is it another aspect of himself that he controls in order to become more like Beelzebub?

Stolas

Pecattiphilia is a fetish where individuals experience sexual arousal from breaking religious rules or committing sins.

Does this mean he's turned on by breaking traditional rules or devil rules? If it's devil rules, does that mean angels turn him on?

What is sin to a devil???

Amon

Harmatophilia is the fetish or preference for people who break rules or commit mistakes.

Man sees whiteout on a page and gets a boner. Lol

Seriously though, what rules are people breaking? And what is it with Avisos and getting turned on by rule breaking?

Minhyeok

Melcryptovestimentaphilia is the desire or fondness for women`s black undergarments or the desire to steal panties.

Panty pervert.

You basic ass bitch. You absolute freak. You wonderful, beautiful pervert.

It's such a common kink, but I love him for it. It fits the childhood friend trope.

Gabriel

Hierophilia is a fetish for religious or sacred objects, places, and people.

We already knew he wanted to fuck God. He's just wearing his heart on his sleeve.

I have... worse thoughts of what he's doing, but that's sacrilegious.

I think anyone with religious ✨️trauma✨️ can attest to this kink. Trauma tends to get errotic at some point for a few of us...

Eligos

Diaphanophilia is a sexual fondness for viewing nudity through diaphanous fabrics such as veils, underwear, baby dolls, etc.

Hard same. I love wearing that stuff and seeing others wear it. It's sexy as fuck.

It's such a basic kink but so powerful. I can think of sooooo many ways to play with it~

[gangstalkerbarbie]

People treat autistic people as if they're, like, fairies or something, completely incomprehensible to the rest of man and ontologically not capable of anything we would call sin. They just work so differently, you know? Except they don't.

Actually it's just a brain wiring that makes you interpret the world in a specific way that, when you interact with the majority of people, who are allistic, unfortunately causes all of you misery.

There's nothing about that that education can't fix. I'm allistic, my mother isn't, I spent my whole life in the misery vortex usually experienced by autistic people, and what I got from there was an ability to come off almost kind of quasi-normal to autistic people by autistic standards. I thought I was stupid and broken and wrong on the inside, but I was perfectly able to be perfectly charming and normal, for a while.

My autistic friends frequently try to claim me, which is annoying but I see why — what allistic has ever been taught to understand them and value their perspective? No allistic could be except someone like me, with a largely autistic family who all believed that they were the norm or even an ideal and lived in a curated world largely designed around their preferences. We're just not that frequently the neurominority anywhere.

There's a specific way that autism interfaces with patriarchy and with the internet that produces recognizable effects:

Most autistic women, being women, internalise that the problem is them and live lives full of suffering, in the full belief that they could never even intellectually grasp what it is to be "normal". Some autistic women reject this paradigm but only have one other to turn to, and this is the type specimen of the femcel, a noble but tragically tormented creature.

A concerning number of dipshit autistic men start chanboards where they convince each other that they are the human default and socialize each other into considering the most unhinged and depraved shit normal, and then launch psyops against wider society from there because... something or other, resentment and noncomprehension probably, I don't know, I don't care. They used to do this in different ways in the analog world (if you've met enough clerics in any religion you will instantly know what I mean), the internet just made it easier.

Dipshit allistic men browse them too, but they don't usually live there, whereas the way it's designed and the ostensible community culture is engineered by autistic megachuds to attract and retain more of themselves in an endless, fetishistic spiral of miserywank. Somehow we've arrived at a point in the culture where young boys think they're super cool because they're under an impression that the insanity on those forums is what grownup society is really like under a veneer of feminism, which is bad because it means they have to listen to mommy.

The humour on there toes a specific line between casual self-deprecation, countercultural edgelorddom and internalised ableism that is deeply appealing to little boys, a weak demographic that everything male and older than them shits on from a giant sequoia and has in every patriarchy since the dawn of human memory. (Granted, less in some than others. Jewish men tend to be kind of normal about little Jewish boys.)

Autistic kids are particularly vulnerable to being groomed into such cultures because they offer them alternatives to an allistic world that doesn't want to try to understand them and punishes them for trying to understand it, and when you combine it with the general patriarchal impulse to solve all problems with mass violence, well.

I think this is a new phenomenon, probably enabled by online gaming, because I don't know how else this demographic would manage to interface with impressionable schoolchildren not already in the loop. But the way it works is very old, and it puts grown men into the world who think being autistic while male is a form of oppression so severe that they should just be allowed to do whatever to whoever in recompense. Call them out? They don't even have to defend themselves, people who want to use autistic people to virtue signal and believe that autistic men are all harmless little infantile oompsymoompsyboos will do it for them.

A mirror of this is readily observed on tumblr, where any time you tell someone with demonstrably similar socialisation that they worded something in a way that was kind of fucking shitty, they jump down your throat to tell you off for tone policing a 31-year-old neurodivergent minor.

Except I don't have to give a shit what anyone on here says ever, at all, whereas on 4chan the culture is gleefully violent and supportive of doxxing in exactly the kind of way you could expect from a collection of rancidly pseudo-macho autistic chuds who internalised the rules of the playground in 1990 and decided they applied to everything forever.

between kanye, elon, and thousands of misogynistic twerps on the internet i think we should finally be allowed to talk about how autistic men kinda suck and do weaponize their condition to excuse awful behavior.

[perfect-homemade-chili]

356 “…Stuff as Dreams are Made of.”

In just the same way as legendary lumbermen might clear out a heavily wooded wilderness to allow such noble community-spirited enterprises as coffeeshops, shopping malls, iHops, saloons and barbershops that specialize in beards to flourish, I am beginning to wonder if the effects of a sage, a truly wise soul, extend far beyond their immediate intercourse and relations. i have peppered much of this blog with fantastical and cheeky elements of fancy, but, seeing beneath the humor, I propose my ideas and private experiences with the upmost sincerity. One such experience - or rather, class of experiences - have, for more than a decade since, left a profound impression on my mind and life-trajectory, on my morals and values as a human being. I once shared acquaintance with a wisest man I’ve ever met—he was more than just the friendly, perfect sagely relation, more than the sum of his advice and company. The fact is, I distinctly remember, even being in his presence—walking around, doing tasks, at leisure, etc—was something sublime, like being in some field of purified energy through which unusual, prophetic and happy circumstances happened. I think it is an experience that anyone who has truly met and exchanged with a saintly figure can attest to, but incredibly hard to pinpoint or describe. I will attempt, for sake of my own sanity and record, to draw some correlations together to paint a picture. Firstly and, as necessary component in framing this concept, one must consider the possibility of what ‘consciousness’ actually is—i do not believe, nor can it be scientifically proven (rather, many suggest the opposite) that it resides in the brain alone. In fact, according to the beliefs of the most credible thinkers and philosophers and mystics, it may be more appropriate to think consciousness does not reside in matter, but matter resides in consciousness—as John Archibald Wheeler, the astrophysicist who coined the term ‘blackhole,’ called—“IT in bit.” The idea that all matter is linked in some inextricable, unfathomable way is an idea that extends to the ends of all fields—call it ‘uncertainty/Heisenberg principle’ (Einstein/Heisenberg, physics), ‘causation,’ (David Hume, modern philosophy, aka fake philosophy—topic for another blog), ‘butterfly effect’ (chaos theory), or described in the characteristic clunky-poetic German fashion, Nietzsche—“…One should use “cause” and “effect” only as pure concepts, that is to say, as conventional fictions for the purpose of designation and communication—not for explanation.” (Beyond Good and Evil, psychology; though specifically he is challenging notions of both freewill and ‘fate.’)

…so, of course, the line of this logic must entertain that the substance of thought is no different. There are some compelling scientific studies in this regard, including the discovery of a strange sea-animal that through maturity settles on the sea-floor and turns into a sponge-plant thing by eating its own brain (suggesting brain is for motor skills only—clever, but I do not agree—probably it is more like a harddrive)—and also some biological anthropological study of apes or monkeys separated by geography suddenly arriving at the same use of some tool without intermediary contact… but I do not remember the source. But even just considering such natural wonders as a flock of birds or a school of tuna moving in concert without colliding like some magical Indian traffic-jam, all seem suggestive of some sort of hive-mind at play. I think most inventions, whether consciously or subconsciously, including works of (good) fiction in the form of ideals, seek to express such realities just beyond the veil of our understanding—and there is no better analogy than the invention of the internet itself, which is literally like some sort of space in shared consciousness. Interestingly, in a particularly convincing case of psychic power I saw online or on TV once, the psychic man describes it almost as if “…tapping into an internet” and he hears the information he seeks.

Now, truthfully, there is no doubt in my mind this phenomenon exists, and is in fact within the reach of most people, though in different degrees. I’ve witnessed it firsthand on numerous occasions —meditation adepts who clear their mind can literally hear the thoughts of others; I believe basic empathy practiced through periods of devoted compassion is an early stage of this natural human ability. There seem marked differences between natural spontaneous shared thoughts and those contrived by own’s self, though this digresses from the purpose of this post. I mention all this because in the recent years since the health decline of that wisest man I’ve ever known, I’ve found it more difficult to connect to Spirit or clarity through prayer or meditation than ever before… as if god has forsaken man. I wonder how much of what I connected to was channeled through the ‘field’ of high-level individuals to begin with. I will close out this post by raising one more curious point—about psychic readings. As someone who has probably wasted maybe close to or more than 12k usd in recent years on this field, here are my conclusions—i do not doubt there exist individuals who are sensitive to such things whether by training, some propensity carried over from a past life, or both—or that the ability to foretell the future or read thoughts are possibly interrelated, as all arts are—but to what extent? I am troubled by the inconsistency and general level of these readings, even from top psychics—at best, I genuinely do not know if they are actually seeing the future, or reading into the fantasies or thoughts of the client at a more basic level. This, coupled by the financial interest and professional pride that prevent honest dialogue or progress in virtually every field, makes me hold these services with reserve, despite my serious belief that much more than we know can be opened by the doors of these ancient practices, windows into subtle metaphysical laws or supermundane facets of existence that have disturbed and riveted every consequential mind since antiquity.

snack 001–chili pistachios. Okay, this is almost not fair. And you can buy them unshelled? In case of a biblical flood, I would build an ark, ditch the animals and take two tons.