#Left and Right Will Lie

[msclaritea]

[whaliiwatching]

haunts the punk rocker with gay thoughts

prompt: dream

[arthursfuckinghat]

Sorry just thinking about how lovingly Charles talked about where he'd buried Arthur, the softness and somber in his voice, the way he reassured John that Arthur got the proper burial he deserved.

"It's where he would have wanted to be.. a pretty hillside.. facing the evening sun."

[ratatatastic]

"Alright and then my last question on the celebration because we are huge fans of this—maybe the greatest establishment of all time—how was the party at E11even?" "From what we remember? Yeah. You know, that whole week was crazy."

Empty Netters | 8.26.24 (x)

"The next day—" "Still haven't slept?" "Still have not slept. That night I probably got an hour of sleep. Maybe 2 hours. The next night was the boys night in Miami. So we have dinner at Catch—which is... what a great spot down in Miami Beach! And then we go to E11even. And E11even put on one of the greatest parties I'll ever go! I don't know if I'll ever go to a better party!" "Big Dog's there? Pitbull?" "I can't remember! But it was—I remember. It was incredible! Like it wasn't even like guys were going crazy. We've been drinking for 3 days straight so you're already in the pocket! You're just enjoying all the fans and like the night that they put on for us was like—it was incredible! We own the place basically! It was so fun! A night I'll remember forever!"

Cam & Strick Podcast | 8.27.24 (x)

and just for prosperity sakes monty and swaggy had public signings at hollywood collectibles on the 29th and even 2 days after the event™ they could not remember jack shit about it (x)(x)

so in conclusion: "so about e11even-" "i dont remember anything about it but it sure was fun ill remember that i dont remember 😃"

[darkfire359]

What could have been: sympathizing with Ed in season 2

I've talked before about how much I love Ed and all his complexity. I've written more fanfic about him and Izzy than any other characters, in my entire history of fandom. And unlike many people, I wasn't unprepared for the dark direction his arc took in season 2; I wanted him to commit MORE atrocities, and I happily made comparisons between him and another one of my favorite characters, Hannibal Lector.

But one of the key things I wanted after he committed atrocities was for him to feel bad about it. And I thought we'd see that! After all, S1 Ed was so tormented about killing his dad (who was abusive and violent towards) him that he never killed (directly) again! He was so broken up about trying to kill Stede in s1e6 that he ended up crying in a bathtub. Just like he cried in the window sill after committing all the kraken horrors in s1e10. It seemed like this was a guy scared of his own inner darkness, convinced he was a monster, who would go around saying things like "I'm not a good person" and "You were always going to realize who I am."

And so even when s2 went darker than anyone expected—when he cut off more of Izzy's toes, and shot him in the leg, and made crewmen fight to the death for experiencing love, and sailed the entire ship into a storm to murder-suicide his crew—I was still ready to accept all that moral ambiguity and give him a hug afterwards. Because of course, I figured that after Ed was brought out of that dark place and those suicidal urges, he would feel horrible remorse. How could he not?

I was looking forward to seeing him break down crying, convinced he was an irredeemable, unforgivable monster. (Which of course, would make it all the more touching when people inevitably did forgive him, and when he did redeem himself). Maybe Ed would even go too far with trying to atone, like in Mercy, one of my favorite post-s1 fics. Probably, I figured, Ed's quest for redemption would be one of the main themes in the second half of season 2.

So it was strange to watch e4, when Ed looked nothing but annoyed at everyone for chaining him up and banishing him, and then he went to hang out with his old friends like he'd done nothing wrong. When after the crew unanimously voted him out, Stede brought him back to the ship literally that same evening, and Ed saw no problem with that. Okay... maybe he's still processing?

Then e5 came, and that episode was about Ed's redemption. Yay! Except... Ed didn't seem to care? Other people made him wear the bag and the bell. He asked how long it'd take people to get over it, guessing "like a day." He gave an influencer-esque non-apology to the crew. He said "I took a man's leg" rather than calling Izzy by name. He literally doesn't remember the circumstances of pushing Lucius off the boat. He does ultimately give a real apology to Fang—for tormenting him years ago, rather than anything from his actual kraken era. I love e5 for the Izzy+Stede dynamic, but watching Ed be an unrepentant asshole here is painful. There is nothing about this that convinces me Ed wouldn't slide right back to being evil if Stede were to leave again.

And the thing is, it didn't have to be like this! We could have gotten Ed breaking down crying with guilt like in s1e6, and it would have made him much more sympathetic—not to mention the fact that Ed really is just an adorable cryer. Alternatively, we could have had some real deep diving about why Ed never apologizes (is he afraid of seeming weak?) or why he's so uncaring about others' pain (has he seen too many friends die over the years, to the point of going numb?)

By episode 6, it seems like most characters have moved on. Stede says something about Ed turning poison into positivity, which feels completely unearned. He pays for the party—but he'd previously tried to make the crew throw their cut of the loot into the ocean. He makes some attempts to best Ned and protect Stede, but Stede ends up saving the crew instead—from a pirate who only showed up in the first place because Ed was intentionally trying to piss him off. Ed is sad that Stede kills someone, and this would be a great time to again make Ed sympathetic! To have him talk about how he doesn't want that for Stede, because his own violence has weighed on him so deeply. But nope.

E6 does see Ed actually apologize to Izzy—and he's terrible at it. He's just like, "Sorry about your leg," makes no eye contact, and flees immediately afterwards. We do see some hints that this shitty apology isn't really indicative of Ed's true feelings, given how he has those flashbacks to the scenes of hurting Izzy seemingly haunting him; but it's very brief. It would be a great time to address Ed's horrific tendency towards conflict-aversion and avoiding awkward conversations in relationships—the same tendency that made s1 Ed never inform Izzy that the plan to kill Stede and the Revenge crew had changed. This would be another great opportunity to help us sympathize with Ed again—to have us see how it's not that he doesn't want to communicate these things, it's that these conversations are terribly stressful and anxiety-inducing for him. But nah, why would OFMD need to include those things for Ed?

E7 happens, and still nothing. If anything, there was a great opportunity for Ed to at least show himself to be a kind person to Stede—maybe nobly stepping in to save the day, even though he's annoyed that Stede's getting all this attention now. You know, like Stede did for him back in s1e5, when the situation was reversed. But nope, Ed runs off to be a fisherman, not having learned any of the earlier season's lessons about whims. He only stops being a fisherman because he's bad at it.

I was still hoping for something big in e8–some huge selfless, gesture that Ed would do to cover for all of his inability to do the little gestures. Ed is good at grand gestures! Swimming back to the ship after he left, then taking the Act of Grace in s1 was HUGE. Very selfless, very sweet! He could have done something like that for Izzy, Lucius, and the traumatized crew. Some kind of heroic gesture to help others more than himself. But nope. In some sense, Izzy dying is one of the greatest indications of Ed's wasted potential, because we narratively had a great opportunity for Ed to be able to save someone... but he didn't.

(Admittedly, Ed is not a complete dick here—he helps Izzy when he's limping, he says some genuinely apologetic stuff when Izzy's dying, and he finally gives Izzy his attention and care. But then after the funeral, he's still like "Well, that's that.")

It's so frustrating. It's not that I don't want to like Ed, or that I don't want to sympathize with him. I really, REALLY do! I don't even need Ed to successfully do anything to earn forgiveness! I'd take Ed trying and failing. I'd take him wanting to try, but being so convinced of his monstrousness that he never makes the attempt. But give me something. Anything other than the unexamined apathy that he has so much of the time.

The thing is, s2 lost the ability for Ed's mistreatment of people to be just another "of course he's violent, he's a pirate" quirk. They were pretty explicit about how abusive Ed was (Jim's comment in e1, the joke in e4 people assumed Ed had hit Stede) and how much he traumatized people (Lucius and the whole crew very clearly have PTSD in episodes 4 and 5). This is serious stuff, which he did to other main characters, which is going to make a lot of viewers look at him pretty harshly.

And that's manageable—Hannibal Lector managed to be most textbook-abusive asshole in the world, committing atrocities and generally being unrepentant left and right, and viewers STILL found him lovable and sympathetic. You can do that! But you need to:

a. make it clear that anyone with the relevant information calls them out for being awful, even multiple episodes later

b. make it clear that they care deeply and genuinely about their wronged loved ones

c. make them willing to actually make REAL sacrifices

I watched so many people start to dislike or outright hate Ed in season 2. It made me really sad. But I couldn't blame them for feeling that way. For all that Ed is supposedly one of the two protagonists in OFMD—a character whose mistakes should be the most understandable, whose mental state should be the most resonant—the show seemed to entirely drop the ball on writing him as such.

[piningpercussionist]

doodles while i try to reteach myself how to do art with a mouse; think it's going pretty okay!

[slimslamflimflam]

Wait if all the journal 3 pages were restored after Weirdmageddon why does Bill’s book insist there were still missing pages that just conveniently happened to pertain to his incredibly sad backstory and concepts brought up earlier in that same book

[myrmica]

how many of zam's problems in s4 are directly related to wormhole even before eclipse is ssooooooooooooooooo crazy. sometimes it hits me

[gingersnapsstars]

charlie bushnell saying luke is like anakin skywalker..... SO CORRECT AND TRUE

[beliscary]

terence bested! prev: [x]

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

I just had a whole actual married, mother of two adult woman be the first person older than about 21 to actually accept the fact that I don't want to get married and be willing to talk through what that means for me, instead of trying to convince me that I'll change my mind as I get older. I'm going to fucking cry

[mercymaker]

astarion x inexperienced tav who's prone to overthinking

after defeating the netherbrain and leaving most of the chaos behind, they could finally focus on the journey that awaited them—without the world’s fate depending on their choices.

astarion took his time getting to know her the way he couldn’t before. he would ask her to play with herself, so as to memorize all the places she liked to be touched.

he'd watch mal, naked, sprawled on the bed for him, back resting comfortably against the headboard, legs bent at the knees as her fingers roamed freely, touching and rubbing the places that yearned to be caressed. despite all his experience and restraint, he'd soon find himself itching to join her, teetering on the edge of just going for it—taking in the visuals and all they did for him. how uncomfortable his cock felt inside his pants, how deep was the desire to relieve the pressure. all only matched by the urge to pounce on her—to feel the slick warmth against his length.

astarion would sit there and think about the way he could stroke her glistening folds with his tip, make her whimper, and when she couldn't deny how desperate she was for him, only then he would reward her. but before he could go any further with those thoughts, he'd notice her getting frustrated, unsure of what to do with herself, brows furrowed as maleane desperately chased the feelings of pleasure and release, now both fleeting. the vampire spawn would watch her expression for a while, trying to determine what was wrong from the changes in her face.

maleane would look back at him, as if searching for help and he'd soon step in, as always, kissing her, moving his hands to her breasts, her waist, until one found its way between her legs to tangle alongside her own fingers. and yet, when he'd move his lips away he would catch a glimpse of worry in her eyes. mal's frustrations would bubble to the surface. because pleasing herself was hard and it didn't feel as good as she'd wanted to. because she was overthinking everything, the thread was slipping, and soon the frantic thoughts would take her completely out of it. the sorcerer wouldn't want to be touched at all.

they’d try again, of course. another time, with more help from astarion—his voice, his instructions—to touch herself. he'd tell mal what he saw, how delicious she looked, how she was turning him on, how he wanted to touch her. he'd confess every single thing he'd like to do to her, how he wanted to explore her body, how he wanted to give her pleasure. how badly he wanted to hear her sing his name.

and through it all, he would see her getting closer, with eyes shut, fingers moving and voice breaking. mal would get lost in the picture he’d painted for her, and he too would see colors he had never noticed before. the little gasps of pleasure were all the encouragement he’d need to begin stroking himself. but he would nonetheless continue, albeit in a breathier tone. maleane would hear every detail on how he’d give anything to taste her, to have her, to indulge in her. and before he could even begin to name all the perverted things he'd make her try, she'd be unfurling in front of him—toes curled, muscles tensed, fingers sore—finally orgasming before him.

[kedreeva]

We had a wind storm this weekend and these two took offense to the wind making Sounds and injured themselves. Artemis (bottom) bruised one side of her face up, but she's acting fine otherwise so she'll probably be back to normal in a few days.

Stan, on the other hand, bruised his left eye socket and was acting Off with a capital O. He's normally not very active, his legs don't work all that great and he can't catch a deep breath because of his messed up ribs and stuff, but he was lethargic and not eating/drinking normally, so I swapped him into Joslin's appt slot today and took him in.

It wasn't my normal vet again, and I told her that Stan is a hot mess, and she felt him up and told me well his abdominal cavity sounds weird, I said yeah he's got messed up air sacs. She goes well, one of his legs is atrophied more than his other, and I said was it his right one because that's the one that was worse as a baby and doesn't work right, and she goes yeah it was the right one. She goes, it feels like his kidneys are too big, this could be a case of gout, we can xray to look for it. Now, I know it's not gout, but an xray will either enlighten her on the fact that I'm not joking about how messed up this bird is, or it will show her what's actually injured, or both.

So she does the xray and she calls me into the back room and she goes well. it's not gout. his kidneys are actually small and I was feeling his messed up air sac. there's a lot wrong here, but I'm looking at his last xray and there's a lot wrong there, and most of it is the same. he got a little better in some ways and a little worse in other ways, but the issue is that it looks like he jammed his hip joint and injured it a little, possibly from landing wrong.

you know. an injury. like from the ultimate panic of the Wind Making Sounds.

Anyway he got some antibiotics against infection and some pain meds and we'll give him a couple of tube feedings until he's not feeling crappy. For now he's asleep in my room on a roost.

[laotwormz]

michael yg's lin lie sketches from weibo

[narwhalsarefalling]

just fucking realized that can openers arent supposed to be hard as hell to use. my mom is left handed and although i can write with my left i usually grab stuff with my right hand.

anyway. turns out our can opener that ive been using for Twenty Two Fucking Years is made for left handed ppl.

[neproxrezi]

29 layers into an armored core six emblem / decal for a new idea (ignore the big selection box bisecting it) i was writing a short story about my take on the protagonist and realised if i was describing combat i'd need to give her a mech, sooo i came up with a build that was enjoyable to write scenes with and now i'm decorating it and making sure it can comfortably do the fights i need to describe

i am deeply, profoundly normal about ac6