#and love is her final act.

[thewingedwolf]

I think the way we learn about the status of each character is kinda genius, because it informs us not only who is positive and negative but also who is mostly dealing okay and who is struggling, and it helps characterize the large cast of characters.

Collins flinches away when Angel first touches him, because he’s bleeding and it’s a significant bio hazard, but doesn’t offer up the information until Angel does. He’s at peace with being positive, but at the same time, it’s a private thing for him; probably he’s learned to stay a lil hushed about it due to his background in academia and the prejudice he almost definitely faced there. He’s also way less patient with Roger’s lil depression spiral -“Roger picked up the phone?!” and “Oh hi’? After seven months?!” - which makes you think this isn’t new for Collins, and he’s a bit too removed from his first positive test to be as understanding (or enabling) of Roger. He has no shame but he’s not stupid either.

Then there’s Angel, who offers up the information within moments of meeting Collins, almost as a way of flirting. Like Collins, Angel is at peace with her status and unashamed of who she is. Unlike Collins, she hasn’t had to hide it. To Angel, being positive is almost just part of being queer; growing up and becoming herself in the 80s and 90s means this is all Angel has ever known, is a community ravaged and left to die of AIDS by its government. She’s already living on the streets (quite likely a victim of prejudice for her status and gender/sexuality if we’re being super honest) so what the hell does she care if people know she’s positive? She’s also coping the best out of everyone because she’s accepted it; she has a loving support system in the Life Support meetings and in Mimi. She has no shame in who she is!

Maureen and Joanne’s negative status is never conveyed explicitly but what’s interesting is that both of them are introduced through their relationship with each other, and then, through their activism. The Voicemail let’s us know Joanne is a civil rights lawyer, a genius, and potentially has a strained relationship with her parents due to her sexuality or gender presentation. Before we even meet her, we know Joanne will love and fit in with this group (have always felt Collins & Joanne bonded over feeling like outsiders while bumping elbows with The Upper Class). Maureen, meanwhile, gets “that attitude towards the homeless is exactly what Maureen is protesting tonight”; it’s not surprise she’s up there singing “revolution justice screaming for solutions” alongside Collins, why she’s so drawn to Joanne - maybe she didn’t go the academic route the way Collins & Joanne do, but she’s just as smart and determined to Do Something with her life. We are shown, long before either woman shows up on stage, that they are unashamed of their friends and would fight alongside them when needed.

Roger’s status, on the other hand, is disclosed over several songs. “How can you connect in an age where strangers, landlords, lovers, your own blood cells betray” and the only positive character on stage besides the extras is Roger, but he doesn’t sing the line alone. In fact, Roger isn’t even the one to ultimately tell us - it’s Mark, mother henning & telling Roger to take his AZT who informs us that Roger being HIV positive is a new thing, likely from sharing dirty needles with April. Even more telling is that Mark informs us during the tune-up that Roger is in recovery & attempting to reconnect to his old passions, but pointedly doesn’t tell us Roger is positive until later. Unlike Collins & Angel, who have progressed further into AIDS yet dont “act sick”, Roger is very much still “acting sick” because he’s in shock. Not just that he’s positive but also that April killed herself. He’s not just struggling with being positive, he is stuck in that moment, reliving finding April and that note over and over and terrified of dying the moment he leaves the safety of the apartment. Shame, trauma, and unending grief consume him, so he tries to hide from his reality even as he reaches for community.

And then there’s Mimi!! What I always notice is not just that she’s casual while not offering up information until it’s necessary - she doesn’t tell Roger until their FOURTH song together! - but that she’s clearly struggling just like Roger. Obviously she’s struggling physically because she’s still using drugs, she’s still drinking, she’s still partying way too much, but she’s also still just sad. “Feels too damn much like home, where the Spanish babies cry. So let's find a bar so dark we forget who we are where all the scars from the nevers and maybes die” isn’t just about Mimi being restless and young and poor, it’s her own version of One Song Glory; she still “feels sick” and feels like her life has been stolen from her, and is desperate to forget everything that reminds her that she’s positive. Not just reckless, and not something as easy to pinpoint as shame, Mimi feels like she’s stuck in a never ending cycle of sickness and sadness and death, and has chosen to deal by simply refusing to acknowledge reality outside of the exact moment she’s living in.

And then there’s Mark. “Oh I’m not-I’m just here to-I don’t have-I’m here with-MARK! MARK! I’m MARK.” Most of his friends are sick and dying around him and there’s not a damn thing he can do about it and it hurts, and it makes him incapable of connecting to others emotionally while desperately seeking connections before the people he loves die. How do you find the line between grief and self pity? How do you not give into guilt while it is weighing your every moment down? Mark is unsure and he will not confide in us his feelings of despair until halfway through Act II after Angel’s funeral when the grief and guilt and pity overtake him until he can no longer hide behind his camera.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Council of lovefools.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[targarrus]

hell hell hell has it's laws

[starry-bi-sky]

do yall ever think about bruce/batman!clone danny standing in front of his bathroom mirror after finding out he was a clone and silently tracing his face. The slope of his jaw and point of his chin. The high angle of his cheekbones and the shape of his eyes, the curve of his brow bones and the shape of his nose. The volume of his hair and the way it curls and gets fluffy when it gets too long.

His hair is black the same way a crow's wing is black. His dad's hair is black the same way a black bear's fur is black. His dad's eyes are blue like the ocean is blue. Danny's eyes are blue the same way a glacier is blue.

His dad has a square jaw and straight flat hair, and he tans and gets a face full of freckles when he's out in the sun for too long. Danny burns like a lobster and his face remains untouched. Danny has a sharp jaw and tall cheekbones, and Sam says when he's not smiling there's almost something regal about him. You would never call Jack Fenton "regal" when he's not smiling.

Sam says when he's not smiling he looks scary the same way a stone statue is. Jack Fenton when he's not smiling looks scary the same way that german shepherd staring at you across the street is.

Do you ever think he grew up wondering if he was adopted. Because of course, he has black hair and blue eyes like his dad. But having the same color doesn't make you someone's child.

Or, worse, things he's heard from the other kids and the other parents and even some of his teachers growing up; that he was the product of an affair. And that his dad was just too stupid to notice. And Danny would defend his parents until the day he died, because Jack Fenton wasn't an idiot and Maddie Fenton wasn't a cheater.

But doubt comes in with fickle tongue. his parents swear up and down that he is their child when he asks about either. That Danny just had his grandparents' features, but he was their son and they loved him.

But Danny doesn't look like either of his parents. His mom's eyes are blue like an aquamarine and Jazz's too. And they burn like lobsters in the sun too, but Jazz gets freckles on her face and so does Maddie. And as Danny grows up he doesn't bulk up or get stocky like his dad did, and when he hits puberty he doesn't shoot up like a tree like Jack Fenton did.

He stays small, and they say he's a late bloomer (and he is), or that he just has his mom's height. But he's fast and has good stamina, and some days it feels like he's built entirely different from his family. That the things they went through growing up just didn't apply to him. Jack and Maddie Fenton both had acne and breakouts when they hit puberty, and Jazz inherits it and he's seen the amount of skincare products she keeps on her side of the bathroom.

And then he hits puberty and breaks out maybe once or twice, but his skin stays clear for the most part and the problems and changes his dad went through just don't happen to him.

And the truth is worse than all of the lies.

How horrifying.

[unpersoniverse]

Skén:nen sá:sewh

as promised, here's Precious boy™ getting kissed by Precious wife™ because he deserves all the love in the world :cc

translation: Get home safe

[michelle-jacksons-art-blog]

Try these out!

[waterlilyvioletfog]

See the thing is, you read HtN and like yeah, obviously lobotomizing yourself so a dead girl’s soul doesn’t get cannibalized is completely fucking wild and you probably have to love someone at least a little to do that, but Harrow has spent the whole book having tension with Ianthe and fervently claiming to be in love with the Body— and then you get to Act V and Harrow is literally weeping wailing feral about Gideon, constructing Prince!Gideon AUs (which, she doesn’t know about Gideon’s paternity!! She is simply drawing upon a (romantic!!!) genre trope!!!) and role reversal AUs and fucking coffee shop AUs about Gideon, and she’s refusing to go back to her own body, and Abigail and Magnus and Dulcie so obviously and completely believe that Harrow is in love with Gideon because they directly compare them to Abigail and Magnus, and she says she’s saving the last dance. Agh!!! Aggghhhhh!!!!!!

[betelgeusing]

watched The Substance and I cannot lie I LOVE the part where she goes goblin mode

[mpliego]

[rottengurlz]

“Sometimes I dream about you. I memorize every detail of your face like a prayer. Those moments seem so real that I grieve whenever I wake up and your spot next to me is cold. Why did you beg me to kill you? I would’ve stopped. Even in death I cannot escape you. I’m not sure I want to even if I was begging for it.”

w/ @kashisun !! (happy birthday 😭)

[mrs-gauche]

I beat Veilguard.

It's 4am. I'm a mess. I'm in tears.

[turtleblogatlast]

[ cw: death mention / family death mention / ]

Mhmm I sure love thinking of the reality where we did get more time to really know Karai and her dynamics with the bros. Losing her hit hard in the finale, but it would’ve hit much, much harder had we known Karai longer and really saw her relationships develop with everyone.

I especially would have been interested in her dynamic with Leo, as past iterations often have the two of them clash in ideals and the like while still sharing many characteristics. Two sides of the same coin, and all that. Her specifically being the bros’ Gram-Gram also adds a whole new dynamic as well.

Imagine how interesting it would be, to have Karai start off on Leo’s side for once, showing wholly just how alike the two are at their cores and bonding as family without the worry of betrayal or animosity that other iterations suffer through, only to have Karai die anyway. Their parting hug and the desperate look of horror Leo wears later on would have hit that much harder, I feel.

[caitvibing]

Every time Jinx has gone through a major traumatic event so far, she has coped by mentally 'killing' the identity she had held prior to the traumatic event. This was obviously really emphasised with the whole 'call me Jinx, Powder is dead' theme running through Season 1. Despite Vi coming back and bringing the past up again after so many years, she ultimately copes by becoming Jinx.

But after the major trauma of losing Silco sinks in, she needs to find a new way to cope. Living as Jinx isn't safe anymore; that identity has also experienced too much pain now. So, as she starts to build her new life with Isha and Sevika, experiencing genuine fun, joy and safety again, she decides to bury Jinx along with Powder, telling Isha that "Jinx is dead" in this scene.

But 'killing' all of her 'past lives' isn't really working anymore. Isha is already reminding her of her childhood self, and then the floodgates to the past burst completely open when Vander returns and she is reunited with her whole family as Powder. She is also starting to reconnect with aspects of Jinx, as the acts of chaos she was once resented for are suddenly met with respect, even revery, becoming a symbol of the revolution. She is starting to stitch all of these selves back together again, keeping a tight enough hold on the positive sides of her identities - Powder's childlike joy and adoration for her family; Jinx's strength and ingenuity - as well as holding onto the people around her, so that she's able to function pretty well despite all the trauma these parts of herself carry.

But then, of course, everything goes totally out of the window at the end of Act 2, because it's Arcane so of course everyone needs to suffer beyond belief (yay). Presuming that Vander and Isha are gone for good, Jinx has just lost two of her biggest sources of stability allowing her to hold together this cohesive identity.

It's possible that history could repeat itself here. She is losing a father figure for the fourth time, and losing a sibling figure yet again. Perhaps the tenuous beginnings of a stronger sense of self will shatter, and she will attempt to be 'reborn' as a new identity yet again.

But when this has happened in the past, she has generally lost everybody: Powder lost her entire family, and Jinx lost Silco and Vi in one fell swoop. This time, however, she isn't completely alone. I doubt Vi is going anywhere, and Sevika will surely make a reappearance. Perhaps there is a chance Caitlyn could have the strength to "forgive, and trust in tomorrow", as was hinted in Cait's conversation with Ambessa. Perhaps Ekko will forgive her too.

I hope that this time the sisters will get the chance to hold onto each other as they grieve the family they lost, the way it should have been from the start. I hope that Jinx will have enough support left to keep rebuilding herself and "fixing" the things she has damaged in the past. I hope that in this final act, she will find enough peace to be able to step into herself, hurt but whole, grieving but loved, Powder and Jinx and herself.

[peacockrulz]

Sorry for the lack of posts, have some more headcanons!!

[thebirdqueen]

All ff7 woman....get behind me. This fandom hates y'all too much

[blueflipflops]

Love how the first interaction sanji has with nami go down. Its so fucking real. They are friends, your honor, FRIENDS!!! These idiots are the kind of friends who would make fun of you when someone flirts at you at the same time making fun of the guy flirting with you. They are Perfect, your honor. It is so good. No weird love triangle except for whatever the fucks going on with luffy, zoro, and sanji but! I am so here for it!!!