#at least to a certain degree

[op-dumpstertruck]

Can we just get to the reunion art please? Hurts my heart so much

~~I love it but also whyyyyy~~

Sure :)

Zoro has an out-of-body experience, Kuina was the one who got out and is now finally home again and the stawhats 100% made quite the ruckus, so little eggplant was quite scared. This will eventually end well, but I never said the reunion would be fluffy :o)

[elektroyu]

Why do I suddenly get all these cold marketing emails XD What has happened

[tiredgatt0]

Considering the intended effect of high-contrast colours in apps and social platforms I do wonder whether people that are colour blind are less likely to be addicted to phones

[seilon]

my only complaint about 2005 dw is that we didn’t get more episodes with gung-ho mortal baby jack harkness. absolutely smitten by that fucker

[puppppppppy]

learning abt friendship decay and "not reaching out to your friends for months at a time unprompted is not neurotypical behaviour" has me feeling a certain way

[neoncityrain]

nothings the same when everythings the same

play in stars and time. play it oh god

[sysig]

Maybe requestober prompt of soft?

Day 5 - Pile o' plushies

[opalsiren]

'sabrina carpenter is soooo male gaze-y' okay name one female public figure who doesn't have to cater to the male gaze, at least to some extent, in order to maintain their position in the public eye. if you don't like her make-up or costumes that's fine but don't act like it's some salient feminist critique to say wearing lingerie makes you an instrument of patriarchy when every single female popstar has to conform to a certain standard of femininity to reach acclaim. there is certainly room for a convo about why we only listen to music and watch films when the women creatives involved have flawlessly styled hair and a full face of make-up and impracticable clothes on 25/8, and how these standards implicate women in general. but critiquing this one single individual woman for being an arbiter of patriarchy smacks of weirdness. like just say you don't like her hair and go we don't need to act like sabrina carpenter herself invented patriarchy

[epiphainie]

.

[friedmagazinebouquet]

I do not envy my friends that are getting various Arts degrees. Like I get that they have a reputation for being 'easier' for some reason, but I am sitting here suffering through my mandatory language and humanites courses, wishing I could just take more science instead

They have so many papers due all the time. I get to sit in a lab and look at rocks. I am never complaining about science again

[aroacettorney]

actually, it is very funny to me that while ludger is usually oblivious to other people's legit attempts to romance him (or ignores/rationalizes it away if it's too blatant), he almost always clocks caseys faux/sarcastic flirtiness(?) as a semi-genuine(?) confession towards him and calls her out for it.

[leightonfucker]

[waytray]

I Promised You (from Arcane League of Legends)

[hsslilly-blog]

hssprimefan once wrote about claire rambling about movies to customers when she worked at a drive in, and then in another instance they said her attempts at annoying hunt with bad film takes just turned into them having thoughtful discussions about film. and i often think about it. claire loving film as an art form is so dear to me. i think it’s one of those things that are truly claribel; whatever path had she gone in life, and whatever her parents had forced upon her, this is something that always would have been true of her. it’s so earnest. it’s not part of her act. this is why i don’t think she’s, like, doing the wrong thing with her life.

[valeriefauxnom]

A Subtle Running Theme

So, a day or two ago, I had the sudden realization about a theme in Abyss that I'm not sure I've seen addressed: 'getting what you wanted in the past that you no longer want now' and how that might influence the ending. Major Abyss spoilers up ahead!

Take Guy, for instance. He, of course, wanted to kill Luke fon Fabre.

He doesn't any more. He wants Luke to live and live well.

And yet...

Asch dies nearly instantly after he finally declares he intends to accept the 'Luke' identity:

...and then Luke follows in short order, despite his fervent wish to see what was done to his family returned to the Duke's.

Jade's another case.

His original intent when he first started working to create replicas was to use them as replacements for the originals, just as substitute bodies to revive the dead, memories and all. He worked and worked hard to find a way to make this dream come to life, modifying the means by which replicas are made in an effort to increase their stability (by means of switching to 7th fonons as their origin fonon).

Since then, he's moved on to believe that such a thing is just flat out impossible. That the dead do not come back, and that everything he did was a fool's errand.

But then, his 'impossible dream' of the Big Bang suddenly is possible. He gets to see it with Star, the original successfully taking over his replica's body, his mind intact...and now is faced with the prospect of it happening to Luke.

Which, again, is a thing he no longer wants.

Jade, shortly after: ...But this time, I do hope that the answer I’ve produced is incorrect.”

I also quote, from a talk between him and Dist, it's clear that Jade is trying very hard to avoid acknowledging the reality for what it is, that Asch will almost be guaranteed take over Luke's faculties and body in the near future, whilst not trying to appear weak to Dist:

Dist: ...Regardless of what caused his death, we can assume the Big Bang had begun. Jade: ...It may not have begun. Dist: What is that supposed to mean?! You're the one who finalized the theories on perfect isofons! Do you not believe your own research?! The Jade that I knew – Jade the Golden Child – isn't someone who would say something like that. ... Dist: Or is that replica that important to you? More than your best friend, Saphir?! Jade: The dust on the floor has value compared to you. Dist: Listen, Jade. The Contamination Effect cannot be prevented. Even with your talent.

Despite this attempt, Dist recognizes that Jade is not exactly happy with this fact, and tries to console Jade, while displaying his own perspective of 'memories=person' that Jade has moved on from. You know it's bad when Dist is attempting to console Jade in his own warped little way.

What had been his greatest dream is now a worst nightmare: Luke, as confirmed on Eldrant, would have lost his life and mind regardless if he survived the freeing of Lorelei, all to be a backup to the currently-dead Asch.

Hell, I can extend this to Natalia, too. She, in essence, wished for Luke to stop being himself the past seven years. To hurry up and re-become that prince charming she saw in Asch before his 'amnesia'. And soon he will, just as she has started to learn to appreciate Luke for his own merit instead of just being the inferior reflection of Asch.

Luke himself is not immune, either.

Starting at act two, Luke is increasingly depressed. He goes from passively wishing that maybe he ought have died to actively thinking dying would be the best for the world.

Enter Tower of Rem, where he finally decides that he actually wants to live. Lo and behold, it's exactly then the universe then decides to ensure a death in the near future for him via fonon separation. Not just that, but his journey's course leads to a duty that will kill him. Doomed twice over to certain death.

And that's not all. Another struggle he has is determining his own self identity. He finally resolves to want to be his own person, be able to have his own mind and body separate from just being 'Asch's replica' or 'Asch' at all in any capacity. This is a big thing that starts to anger Asch in the ending, as Asch has his own complicated feelings on Luke's independence from him and what it means for his own impending death (that I could and might rant about in another post).

Again, though, even that is possibly contested in the ending.

In short, Jade, Luke, and Guy all got what they wanted at the end of Abyss... just not what they wanted in the present.

---

So, uh, yeah!

I see a lot of arguments that it just has to be Luke in the end, that he's the protagonist and thus is more untouchable/more likely to be revived than less central characters like Asch, and that it would be against Abyss' themes of self-determination to have that mysterious figure be anything other than Luke in body and (complete) soul.

However, with Abyss also consistent in its 'be careful what you wish for' narratives that come back to bite and bite hard the good chunk of the cast, I would argue it's entirely possible to have the ending be but another case of this corruption of past wishes.

[viric-dreams]

There was a silver lining to Jones’ stressful mission infiltrating the Koloman Delegation during the Games. He’d managed to make a friendly contact—a surface spy from Cornwall, who found the goings-on just as ridiculous as he did. But her bosses told her to come down to the Neath, so here she was.

The Cornish Koloman at least had a sense of humour about it. And the longer they spoke, the more affinity he had for her. This seemed to be reciprocal, with the interest she’d taken in him. She didn’t know his role, but seemed generally sympathetic toward the cause. Perhaps she could be turned.

Following her departure to the surface, they kept in touch, their letters decidedly friendly in nature, but always with the undercurrent of something else. She’d mention updates from the surface, vaguely allude to the pieces moving above, hints that may be useful. Perhaps she’d suspected his allegiances and wanted to offer something of use. It’s unlikely to be simply friendly small talk—she’s clever, after all.

As time went on and the constable’s menacing weighed heavier and heavier on him, it became more and more difficult to write. His letters would be equally sociable in nature, each piece of correspondence dutifully reported up the chain, but slower, each letter needing longer and longer to write.

He was hardly working anymore. What was the point with the walls closing in on him? If the Constable wouldn’t get him, his own side would. The surveillance was constant now. They were gearing up to make a move, he could feel it. He’d meant to write some sort of a goodbye, yet it had somehow gotten buried in the pile—too many affairs to get in order. He’d probably forgotten something important, but he’d long since stopped keeping track of the things he’d forgotten. He regrets not writing a final letter.