#bark answers a thing

[ditzydogxd]

Hiii this is liminal from Roblox :] I just wanted to say Rubi is really cuteee... Maybe Tilly and her could be friends :)

Hello!! I meant to follow you back, but I’ve been busy (dandy’s world n all that) but thank you!!

They should totally be friends :]

[hauntingblue]

CAUSE THIS IS THRILLER (bark), THRILLER (bark) NIGHT

Usopp's outfit is so funny for reals

He got the whole squad laughing

Luffy enablers at it again.... (Robin.... I know.....)

The humor panels so far have been so good!!! God this arc is so funny

HE SAID IT‼️‼️

They look like birds 😭😭

It's just too good... luffy taking cerberus and zombies what can't he do

It's just banger after banger what can I say

Franky feeling for other people because of his guilt complex and sanji lying through his teeth and pulling out the women excuse to seem unaffected... yeah

Look at them.... look how they ate

Omg joyboy reference?? (No)

Sanji is rubbing off on usopp.... also chopper noticing that is sogeking's weapon akdhaksjak

ANOTHER SLAY!!!!!

Their priorities: I'm not strong enough, there isn't enough food, and nami isn't here

Franky going from wanting to kill brook for his jokes to making a joke like his after he hears his backstory... exactly (Robin was already enabling him before the backstory even fdagjsfha)

Sanji is altering his body and actually being on fire to communicate to us how fucking mad he is..... I need more of him going insane I do I do

My god what is he doing ALDJALAJALA

AHSAHAHQHAH THEY ARE THE SAME!!! naaah sanji wouldn't force a woman to be his wife

You cant see me but I am nodding my head in agreement over and over

You don't understand he altered his body to communicate to us how mad he is. He inploded himself and then reconstituted again. Those germa 66 genes are insane

You tell em usopp!!!! The first of many girls you've scared into defeat!!! Akdjqknql

Zoro zombie regressed to not trusting robin akdjaks he's still in there

ROBI-CHO SUPLEX??? HELL YEAAAAAH

There is zosa- [GUNSHOT GUNSHOT GUNSHOT GUNSHOT]

Super frapper gong.... he is doing combo shots with frobin... omg.... parents....

Everything is so fun I'm having such a good time reading.... and then zosan angst like damn I am being fed well here

[silverskye13]

talks to u

You will regret talking to me I'm very very sorry

So recently my sister has been reading out loud to me [it is very fun I wish I had someone to read out loud to] and the book she picked was Haunting on the Hill. This book was an absolute minefield of a read because it was advertised as a spiritual sequel to Haunting of Hill House and HOHH is probably one of the books I've been the most emotionally invested in ever. Mostly because I see people take the book and Try To Do It Better constantly, and they do it wrong over and over and over again. I don't know how this became My Hill To Die On, but no one can do a remix of the genre right, especially those that pretend like they're trying to.

Hell House, for example, a book that I hate with my entire being, was a very intentional stab at HOHH. It took the trope of four people -- one a slightly older gentleman who is doing research on the property -- two women -- who is a lonely homebody, and one who is a (implied) bisexual psychic -- and one younger man about their age who has some Obvious Substance Abuse Problems, and sets them in a haunted house to try and figure out why its haunted. The author then spends the rest of the book punishing those characters for obvious perceived societal slights. The old man's sin is being old, and dies because he isn't virile and strong enough to withstand the house [unlike the young male protagonist]. The psychic is punished for believing she is psychic, being a confident woman who lives alone, and being implied bisexual [this is evident in the nature of her death, which I won't share here. It's fucking bad]. Then after these characters die, the white male savior comes back, something to do with the old owner of the house haunting it with his willpower, in a closet with a glass of water? It made no sense. But the metaphor the book was obviously leaning towards was, the Good Guy can win and get the girl if he has strength of mind, is vaguely psychic [but better than the psychic lady obviously] and fucking stands around long enough while his friends are killed.

House on the Hill, which should have been marketed as a reference to Hill House and not as a spiritual successor, is a passable haunted house book that attempts to remix the story by making all of the main characters theater kids. There is an older lady who has been ousted from her community for being too old, the young woman main protagonist who is the Ellie parallel, the Theadora parallel is her girlfriend, a bisexual actress who is maybe a little too full of herself, and their single male character has a substance abuse problem involving cocaine instead of alcohol, like Luke from the original book. The author even seems to have grasped some of the original intention of HoHH as a conversation about isolation and loneliness. However about halfway through the book, it takes a turn and seems to punish Theadora for being the character she was written as, in the same way Hell House punished its Theadora allegory character. The rest of the book proceeds with a lot of standard haunted house tropes -- not a bug exactly, but they don't reinforce any extended metaphor. They're mostly there to be spooky. Which would be fine for a standard haunted house book, but not for a haunted house book that claims its the sequel to HoHH.

You see, Haunting of Hill House, and by extension, Shirley Jackson, the author, have a very subtle but also deeply impactful metaphor about loneliness going on in the background, and everything from the haunted house to the fallout of the characters reemphasizes this theme.

Ellie, Eleanor, is an exhausted housewife-style woman in the 1960s, whose never gone anywhere or done anything with her life, because instead of marrying and moving across the country somewhere, she stayed home to take care of her ailing mother. Now that her mother is dead, she lives with her sister and brother-in-law, and believes herself to be a general tax on the family. She fills stuck, alone, unloved and unwanted. The story is in her point of view, and you quickly realize her way of coping with her trapped feelings involves fantasticizing the world around her. She dreams of who she would be if she just lived over there in that little cottage, how differently her life would turn out if she had a cute little life in that one room house. Etc. When she accepts the summons to Hill House, she steals her brother in law's car and drives there on her own, her first trip alone anywhere in her entire life.

Theadora is a psychic who, if I'm remembering right, lives alone and owns a flower shop. She lives a much more interesting lifestyle than most women in the 60s, in a big city with many different friends and lovers coming and going, completely independent. There is an implication that she has trouble keeping interpersonal relationships -- she's a little too flighty -- and really a woman who can't settle down with a man is a red flag.

Doctor Montague seems fine on the surface, if a little jaded. He's a professor at university who is being slowly pushed out of his scientific field because he believes in the supernatural, and wants to prove it using empirical evidence. You find out his wife is very supportive in this venture -- too supportive. He thinks all of her contributions are nonsense, and so is she. His loneliness is self inflicted. He has a fan club right there with his wife, if he gave two shits about her opinions.

Last is Luke, an alcoholic, and the person in line to inherit Hill House. His loneliness is that he, doesn't want the fuckin' house. But because of his alcoholism and gambling problems, the family has decided he, as the cursed child, gets to take care of the cursed mansion no one else wants to touch. So Luke, ostracized from the family and a little shitty about it, decides he might as well rent out the place for some extra cash to fuel his various addictions. The family is going to be cutting him off soon anyway...

These four characters, over the course of Hill House, become haunted by the house, not because of tragic deaths there, or because the house is alive in any literal sense of the word. But because the House has the quality of an overbearing mother, smothering its children with its expectations. Any piece of furniture moved in the place is replaced as soon as they leave the room. Any door opened to allow air or light inside is shut the minute they walk into the next. The house rights itself back to a self-inflicted perfection that is unlivable, and it wants to isolate you too, to be like it. Hill House tells you exactly what it is and what it wants to do in the first paragraph: And all who walk there, walk alone.

Shirley Jackson wrote this very intentionally. As a woman in the 60s trying to have a successful writing career, none of her books were taken seriously. She was pigeonholed into mother and housewife first. Articles that wrote about her works at the time held the patronizing tone of someone congratulating a child who found a new hobby -- not a serious writer wanting to make poignant stories. Her books are lovely now, the few that were published. But Shirley Jackson lived a life that was full of anxiety and agoraphobia, in a world where she felt belittled and token. Her books are written the way they are for a reason. There is great loneliness in being shoved in a box.

I really love that exploration. I love how the people in the book descend into the box of Hill House, the expectations they place on each other, and the way all the women feel tonally dissonant in their token roles. And that's why I hate so many modern adaptations, or inspired-bys, or spiritual sequels. Hill House is a metaphor before it's a ghost story -- and that is why it succeeds as a ghost story! It is scary because you get invested in the characters' wellbeings, their doomed qualities, their individual, very subtle, madnesses. Watching new writers read the book and punish those characters over and over again for not acting right [especially Theadora, Jesus Christ.]

In fact, since I'm already ranting, I'm going to give you a quick rant in defense of Theadora.

Theadora breaks into the book as a very bright star in Ellie's world. She is, literally, everything Ellie wishes she could be. She lives an interesting life, alone, without being too cripplingly lonely. Theadora, used to a little bit of flirting and over friendliness, falls in with Ellie and Luke immediately. She is charming, and bright and beautiful, and Ellie, who's character flaw is romanticizing everything, falls head over heels for her. They get scared together. They comfort each other when the ghosts start acting up. They get haunted together. And Ellie decides, in the way of someone romanticizing something, when all this is over, she would like to live with Theo. But when she tells Theo this, Theo laughs it off. "This is just a holiday, Ellie dear. We will have to get back to our lives eventually." It's unfair to say this is a game for Theadora. I feel like her feelings in the book, all her charm and her flirting, are genuine. But they're genuine in the way of someone going on vacation and flirting around with the people they meet -- she has a normal life she enjoys that she plans on getting back to. Ellie, who is incredibly alone, and who feels like she has only just tasted happiness now that she's come to Hill House, doesn't want to go back home after this. This is the happiest she's ever been.

Ellie informs Theo she is going to follow Theo home, and Theo turns very, very mean. She starts hitting much harder on Luke [something that makes Luke uncomfortable, but something he never really stops, because Luke also likes the attention he's getting] and belittling Ellie and her wild fantasies. She pushes Ellie away. It isn't kind, but what else can she do? She told Ellie she doesn't want to be followed home and Ellie, trapped in her daydreams, doesn't listen.

The rest of the book unfolds. Hill House isolates Ellie, and makes her feel like she can have no happiness outside its smothering walls. She gets taken by it.

In every book that takes on the mantle of trying to tackle the themes that made Hill House great, I would like to ask you all this: Why do they always punish Theo?

Hell House straight up kills its Theo allegory in a very brutal, overt way, implying she deserves that brutality for her promiscuity. The House on the Hill kills its Theo for being too full of herself, for believing she was entitled to greatness.

Why?

You can make a case for the queer aspects of her probably. Or for misogyny. Or for infidelity. Or for the fact that she appears to choose Luke over her relationship with Ellie. But I notice none of these books punish their Ellie allegory for also falling for Theo. For also aspiring to be something other than a stuffy housewife somewhere. For also falling for Luke, and wanting him to be a part of her happiness fantasy.

In honesty, I really think these authors read Theo and think she's the antagonist. So they write their stories to punish the angry woman who was mean to poor, lonely Ellie. But, here's the kicker, Theadora isn't the antagonist. The house is. Loneliness is. The house leads Ellie to a perfect world, and Ellie, who is the way that she is, cannot fathom a world where that perfection is broken, so she ignores it. So she scares people with her over-attachment. So they try to send her away, because whatever is going on with her, it's not safe and it needs to stop. So she decides she would rather die than leave.

Theadora is only "the bad guy" because she's the one that reminds everyone that the fantasy of this perfect house must break eventually. The Doctor will have to go back to his university that doesn't take him seriously and his wife who takes him too seriously. Theadora will have to go back to her shop with her rotating friends who aren't as close as she'd like, but whom she can't force to stay. Luke will have to go back to his place as the unwanted, failing heir and Eleanor --

Well. Eleanor doesn't leave Hill House.

Everyone gets so mad at Theodora because of Ellie's investment in her. Because Ellie is lonely, and sad, and relatable. The first time I read Hill House, some of Ellie's lines made me want to cry they hit so close to home. All her assertions that when she spoke to people she said too much and was too stupid, she would be better tomorrow. All her quiet chastisements that she needs to be more interesting. All her attachments and how scared she is of being spurned. All her wonder when she looks around at the world and tries to imagine a better life. But it's not Theodora's fault that Ellie doesn't get that. It's Ellie's fault for becoming too attached to something that isn't there, and it sucks, and if this were a story with a happy ending, she would realize that and grow past that, but she doesn't. That's not how the story is written.

On one of the nights when the haunting happens, Ellie and Theo are sharing a room. They are laying in bed and holding hands while the house comes alive around them. Knocking on the walls. Slamming doors. Claws, and whispering, and scraping and screaming. Ellie and Theo hold each other's hands tightly. She hears the torturous sounds of a baby in the other room, a child in pain, screaming for its mother, and she's terrified and she's holding tight to Theadora's hand.

And finds, when the haunting stops, that Theo was out of reach the whole time.

Ellie asks, who's hand was I holding?

[The Haunting of Hill House is a metaphor.]

One of these days I'm going to sit down and write the Haunting of Hill House remake in my head, that I am just egotistical enough to believe I could do well. I would find a more modern metaphor first. Something to do with the loneliness of an infinitely interconnected world. Something to do with how boxed in we all feel, how trapped, and how so many people blame it on computers, even though they should be able to connect us more.

I would build a Hill House where the four characters meet on a forum, the first time they've found someone with similar interests. They would meet in person for this haunting expedition. They too would take in the oddness of a house that rights itself on its own, pretends they were never there. They two would fall in love with each other, and bond, and find community in a group of people who are constantly isolated and are glad to finally find someone they relate to.

They too would have to dear with the objective, lonely horror of realizing this doesn't magically fix their problems. That they were alone in the rest of their lives not just because the world isolated them, but because they're bad at forming connections. They would get catty, and disagree, and worry about the lives they need to go back to, and complain about spouses and partners. And one of them, as is Hill House's tithe, wouldn't be able to cope.

One of them, as is Hill House's tithe, wouldn't be able to leave.

Anyway, not sure where exactly this rant was going. Uh. Nice Sunday we're having anon. Got any niche special interests you've been meaning to unload recently?

[1sickpuppyy]

WOW OK DIDNT EXPECT THE MOST INCREDIBLE EXTRAVAGANZA BUT LEAVE IT TO U TO OVERACHIEVE (in the best way possible as always)

ya know, i gotta admit, there’s so many things i’d love to know about u! like, i seem to remember that we both have a real gut rooted passion for stephen king. it would be so amazing to hear about your top 3 fave books of his, and why you chose each one!

of course i would need @sapphinity to help you out with the grooming glove on your feet while you share your answer. or, you know, i’m curious whether she’s ever used it on your neck and ears before? 🤔

HEHEHE THANK YOU I LOVE MY TOOLS :3

and YEAH i remember thats like how we started really talking!! i literally spent like 20 minutes writing out this longass thing about my picks for these and then tumblr mobile DELETED IT 😭 so im gonna summarize!!

1. THE SHINING MY BELOVED- im a careeer hotel worker who got their start in a historic haunted hotel in colorado, six hours south from the stanley hotel as a matter of fact! and im still passionnate about and working in the industry seven-ish years later! i feel like the shining really captures the magic and mysticism that hotels have as liminal spaces and (i believe) as places where the barrier is thinner. having been doing this for this long, i can tell you that you wil sometimes just See Shit or have a room that has a weird story that everybody avoids because it feels bad, thats just part of it

2. and 3. are for the same reasons!! its two of his longest, under the dome and the stand. in both of them i fell in love with the huge cast of relatable or interesting characters with realistic and varied motivations, and the fact that the stories themselves have the supernatural element as a driving force but the story is primarily character driven! LOVE that shit give me a whole town of people to fall in love with and give each of them at least five chapters and im NOT kidding. ALSO THE VILLIANS!!!!!! james rennie is one of my fav villians of any media fr i just love that in a town thats being held hostage by unspeakable horrors beyond our comprehension the true evil is a southern baptist!!!!and, are you listening, lean in close now........ i would let randall flagg crucify me. i would let him drain my sanity and send me to wander in the desert. i would even follow his sobriety rule. just one chance sir please i have so many kinky ideas for your freaky psychic powers pleasepleasepleaseplease

ALSO I GOT A LITTLE CARRIED AWAY BUT THAT LAST PART??? NO I DO NOT THINK SHE NEEDS TO DO THAT AT ALL I WOULD BE UNABLE TO THINK IF THEY WERE ON MY FEET 😵‍💫 and neither of us have even considered using it on the neck!! now im TERRIFIED, thank you!!! i am going to get her to do it as soon as possible

[barghest-land]

Hi!! I'd love to know how you got involved with paleo expeditions, since you mentioned you're an art director! I'm just curious bc I do some paleo work in the US but haven't yet been on expeditions. Also your sketches and paleoart in general is so gorgeous, I'm absolutely taking notes as an artist myself. Ur rendering and atmosphere in your art is 1st class!!

helloooo and thank u!!<3 i'm not a paleonthologist; i just go to expeditions with paleo/geologists to places where it's ok to search for things (which in my case is... almost everywhere in my country. lol). sometimes it's big expeditions, like week-long, but they aren't field work! we don't do anything for museums and stuff. but if there's something found that it worth further examination, it goes to the museums :) tho some of expeditions are done to find what can be found there (going to new places i mean), so it's a geological exploration in a way. i'm not a geologist either (i wish i was), i'm just kinda vibing with the team cuz i like things they do, and i love to learn about all that stuff. and no if i find some Really Rare stuff, i'm not gonna be allowed to excavate it further!

[fllagellant]

How much dd2 character background lore stuff am I gonna end up ignoring and why is the answer the All of it

[utterhomestucktrash]

ny questions: 23!

But SERIOUSLY this has been a really important year for me - I started living on my own, I started dating again, I repaired a lot of relationships I had long abandoned, I started LEAVING THE HOUSE 🗣️ ! And at every cusp I was terrified it would only result in my life getting worse, another breakdown, another tragedy - and I won't lie there have been some painful setbacks but at the end of the day I would let my 2024 self know 'You are strong enough for this - you have enough in you to not Just Survive anymore' or something cheesy like that hehe

New Years Asks Here ! 🎉🎉

[simorys]

Do you ever think about making a Lotf oc?

I actually have made an Oc a while ago, I haven't really done much with him, though

His name is Toby, and his ass got left behind because everyone kinda forgot about him 💀 He hid on top of the mountain and slept through the fire, and woke up to an empty island. He eventually died of starvation 💔

Here's some art. I have drawn him more in my sketchbook. Unfortunately, I don't know where that sketchbook is right now 💀

and two videos I made 😭

[tsbs-darksun-confessions]

Kiss Ruin I dare you my life

As much as I love seeing lives wasted before my eyes, the answer is still no.

What is it you people do not understand? Can you all not read now? Why would I ever kiss Ruin?

Or is this some joke I'm not understanding? Are you all making bets to see how long it'll take for me to crack? Well too bad. It's not happening on my end.

Go bother someone else. I'm done here.

[ditzydogxd]

Dang Bark ur really on a roll today

lmaooo, yeah idrk why. I do my best not to spam like people’s blogs, but I guess you were the exception!! I like learning about people’s marvel ocs and stuff, so yeah (also you’re my first ask woooo!!!)

[mwagneto]

i stopped dissociating sometime last week and it fucking SUUUUCCCKKKS. let me back in PLEEEEEEASE😭

[silverskye13]

[crawls out of my hole like an alligator stumbling out of hibernation] sorry for the spam but I am,,,,, trying to catch up on things

[e-m-p-error]

💗 | Vox/Tello, Vincent/Era (or Clement), Hellaina/Anya, and Jayden/Vel??? Or feel free to choose one or two of the above!

Send in 💗 for me to use a love meter to check the compatibility of our muses.

[ Ostello ]

"Looks like we were meant t'be, babe." Ostello couldn't be happier.

[ Erasmo ]

"Not too bad! I agree, though. I like what we've got going on between us."

[ Clement ]

"Looks like we have the same score as you and Era. Interesting that I think we might be more compatible."

[ Anya ]

"Wouldja look at that? Looks like we should go on more dates and stuff. Oops~"

[ Velvette ]

"Oh, Noodle Doodle, that can't be right. I think we have the strongest connection. You and me are special. We found our person."

[howlsnteeth]

i just wanna say that i heavily relate myself to melanistic wolves and i love gore & ragecore stuff so finding your blog and art was like . omg!! new favorite artist this is SO COOL !! definitely in love with the vibes of your art and how aesthetically pleasing and satisfying it is to look at,,!! <3

aw omg thank you!

[sergle]

Now I’m curious, what breeds are on your list?

✨Golden Retrievers✨ Pomeranians Samoyeds Rottweilers Irish red setters German Shepherd (I like the black ones) Rough Collies and Shelties Great Pyrenees Bernese Mountain Dogs Cocker Spaniels St. Bernards Borzois and probably more that I forgot to list!! These are all dogs that I Especially want to cry when I see them, and that I could see myself loving / being able to meet the particular needs of their breed. I've expanded my Range a little in the two years since I brought Hugo home, since he's taught me a lot about dogs, and I could potentially take care of a baby with very different needs from the ones that he had. I'm still by no means a dog expert but. Yanno. You learn small things over time! In the end, when I was searching for a dog a few years ago, I had a few qualifications I didn't want to budge on. I needed a dog that's trainable, but not stubborn, a dog that's gentle and considerate with my cats and my niblings, a dog that's not too reactive, a dog with soft fur, and a dog that is affectionate. So... Hugo is all of those things!!! He picks up skills quickly and listens (I gotta work on his Recall though), he takes extreme care around the cats and is so careful that he can be left alone with kittens and baby chicks, so being sat on / bothered / tugged on by small kids isn't even a challenge. He has never growled at anyone or anything in Irritation in his life. He's never bared his teeth. He doesn't bark at strangers or at odd noises, he doesn't snap as a response to being surprised. He's extremely pillowy soft, and his fur doesn't irritate my skin or pierce my clothes. He is extremely, extremely sweet and loving, frankly to the point that he would easily fall in love with a new owner if he was kidnapped lmao. You can maybe see why I like goldens so much. I got REALLY close to adopting a Pomeranian, which I'll continue to Think About, basically forever... but as someone with a predisposition for migraines, I don't want to set the dog up for failure if I'm not ready to hear bark bark bark bark bark bark bark all day. That's the ONLY downside. Maybe I invest in some noise cancelling headphones? They're beautiful dogs though, I love an animal that looks like a little rat. You ever see one of them after a bath? My god.

[fbfh]

The ending to chapter 11 of LUTD reminded me of this, ngl...

Nico: Y/N, you're going to have to stop screwing around if you want to be Leo's girlfriend.

Goth Shawty: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Girlfriend? I don't want to be Leo's "girlfriend".

Nico: Well... what do you want then?

Goth Shawty: I don't know. I just wanna be with him all the time. I wanna hear about his day, tell him about mine. I wanna hold his hand and smell his hair. But I don't want to be his stupid girlfriend.

Nico: Y/N, what you just described is a relationship between a boyfriend and a girlfriend.

Nico, under his breath: And a pretty clingy one at that.

JLKGJSLKJSSLKSDJD LITERALLY. anon you just described Leo and goth shawty perfectly. reader really said "I don't want to be his girlfriend ew no I just want him to be completly devoted to me and not touch anyone else or be attracted to anyone but me."

nico: "...so you want to be his girlfriend."

seriously though once Leo gets goth shawty to really open up she's going to be the clingiest motherfucker on earth but like same bc it's Leo. who wouldn't be clingy as hell with him.