#but better than a mirror!

[gintrinsic-writing]

Mirror vs Open Closet Door: Fight!

When Sky volunteered to share a room with Time and Four, he did so with the anticipation of a peaceful evening. Part of him even imagined how nice it would be to doze off to the quiet notes of an ocarina, or to the steady, soothing rasp of a whetstone. In no way did he anticipate an open closet door. 

“Uh,” he began eloquently, wiggling his chilled toes beneath the covers. “What’s up?”

Time turned away from the now-open closet like it was the most normal thing in the world. He hadn’t even retrieved anything; he’d simply taken one look at the closet, frowned, gotten up, and opened the door all the way. Behind him, the dark closet now loomed ominously, its many hangers like a row of teeth. “Mirror’s on the outside of the door,” Time answered, throwing back his side of the sheets. 

“Ah, that makes sense,” Four said from the end of the bed. He fit perfectly lengthwise, which was something Sky had been trying very hard not to joke about. Now, he had other things to focus on. Namely—

“No it doesn’t?” He glanced between the two of them. “Now the closet’s open.”

Time pinched the room’s single candle between his fingers, plunging the room into darkness. “It’s fine. There’s no draft.”

No draft? Sky mouthed in disbelief. For a moment, that was it. Time settled on his side, apparently comfortable, and Four sighed in contentment. A chime could be heard from the grandfather clock in the common room. Sky counted to ten before he finally balked. “Okay, no, absolutely not.”

Time blinked at him, his eyes barely visible. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Sky repeated incredulously. “You left the closet door open on purpose!”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, Sky,” Four said in his most mature (read: annoying) tone. “It’s just a closet.”

Sky forced himself not to grind his teeth in frustration. “If there’s nothing to be afraid of,” he began slowly, “then there shouldn’t be any problem with the mirror.”

“That’s completely different,” Time answered in an even more mature (read: more annoying) tone. 

“No, it’s not! You’re telling me that that—” Sky waved a hand in the general direction of the closet. “—is less creepy than a mirror?”

“Yes,” Time said immediately. 

“No, it’s not.”

“Is too.”

Sky rubbed both hands down his face. “You sound like a child.”

“I am a child,” Time sighed. 

What? Sky thought, frowning open-mouthed. Before he could reply, Four finally sat up, his extra blanket pooling around him. 

“It's not completely scary. There’s plenty of moonlight in here.”

“Yeah, that makes it worse,” Sky muttered. “It’s easier to see.” He risked a glance at the closet, then did a double-take. “Sweet Hylia, I swear it’s bigger than it was before.”

Four’s head whipped around to look. “What? No, it’s not.”

“It is!” He was pretty sure. Like, seventy percent sure.

Suddenly, inspiration struck with a self-satisfied jolt. Sky could be the bigger person here; he could compromise! “Why can’t we just take the mirror down?”

“Tried,” Time said. “It’s glued to the door.”

Sky crossed his arms. “Okay, then how about… I switch rooms. I bet Wind would switch with me.”

“Then the sleeping arrangements won’t work as well,” Four explained. “We split up rooms based on an even Link-per-room ratio.”

“Then I’ll switch with someone close to my size. Warriors.” 

Time snorted. “Won’t work. He’s rooming with Legend; fifty rupees says their closet door is open, too.”

“Then I’ll switch with Legend,” Sky said brightly. It took him a second to realize he’d messed up. “Wait, no, Warriors kicks in his sleep.”

“Mmmhm,” Four answered. They’d all been victims of that unfortunate kind of abuse before. 

“Fine. Twilight’s got a weird thing about mirrors, right? I’ll switch with him.”

“Enjoy Wind’s and Wild’s snoring,” Time said wryly. 

Sky groaned. Time was right, there was no way he could sleep through their combined snores. “This sucks.”

Time snuggled further into the covers. “Too bad.”

“You’re an ass sometimes.”

“I’m so wounded,” Time said around a yawn, and Sky huffed. 

Minutes passed. The closet continued to loom. Sky was afraid he’d see a face if he kept staring inside, but he was also afraid of looking away. Goosebumps broke out across his skin. Maybe, if he was brave enough to leave the bed, he’d wait until they fell asleep and simply close the door. Maybe. 

“Four?” he whispered when he couldn’t take it anymore. “You awake?”

Four sighed. “I am now.”

The question wouldn’t leave him. It was a welcome distraction at this point. “What do you think Time meant when he called himself a child?”

“Dude, I never try to figure him out anymore.”

“...Yeah, fair.”

More minutes. More looming. Sky contemplated the worth of the Triforce of Courage in the face of mundane things. 

Somehow, he fell asleep. 

[notbecauseofvictories]

I'm re-reading the Discworld series for reasons, and honestly the most relatable part of reading these as an adult is how many of the protagonists start out being tired, used to their little routine and vaguely disgruntled by the interruption of the Plot. Sam Vimes wants to lie drunk in a gutter and absolutely doesn't want to be arresting dragons. Rincewind is yanked into every situation he's ever encountered, though he'd much rather be lying in a gutter too. (Minus the alcohol. Plus regretting everything he's ever done said witnessed or even heard about fourth-hand in his whole life.) Granny Weatherwax is deeply suspicious of foreign parts and that includes the next town over; Nanny has leaned into the armor of "nothing ever happens to jolly grannies who terrorize their daughters-in-law and make Saucy Jokes"

Only the young people don't seem to have picked up on this---and that's fortunate, because someone has to run around making things happen, if only so Vimes and Granny and Rincewind have a reason to get up (complaining bitterly the whole time) and put it all to rights. Without Carrot, Margrat, Eric, etc. these characters don't have that reason; they're likely to stay in the metaphorical gutter and keep wondering where it all went wrong or why anything has to change.

............well, that's not quite true. You get the sense that Vetinari knows how much certain people hate the Plot. And as the person sitting behind the metaphorical lighting board of Ankh-Morpork, he takes no small pleasure in forcing the Plot-haters specifically to stand up, and say some lines.

[vingler-mirror]

Vereinsamt text post meme because we're being practical, involved, and suffering with this patch

Part 1 | Part 2

[hiyyihrts]

Romancing Mister Bridgerton: Chapter 9 - The Sitting Room

[acesstark]

IWTV character as random posts and tweets I’ve been collecting, part two

[post-it-notes7]

If Dark Meta is screaming for help, I think him barricading the door is going to be even more of a problem for him

it's not just his problem

[hrokkall]

ULTRATOBER DAY 2 /// V2

[PREVIOUS] 🪛 [NEXT]

All red for the red fans in the audience

[umbrellacam]

Detective Comics (Vol. 1) #734 - Mark of Cain, pt 2

Oh, I love this, how the three bottom panels are descending and the silhouette of Gotham's skyline is rotating in the background to show they're falling, falling, falling, but the nameless girl and her father - the father she's desperately determined to stop, the father who does love her despite how complicated and terrible that love is - are timelessly still, as if the rest of the world has paused in this strange moment of re-connection. Shards of glass flying about them like a melancholy snowfall. Iconic.

[dietbridgetjones]

Josh Hartnett as David Ross

Black Mirror | Beyond the Sea

[camb99-cbmi6]

Happy Pride month y'all 🌈

[lights-at-night-art]

because nothing matters more than the performance

[sea-jello]

hong kong miku,,,

[nightmarish-fallen-angel]

You know, the whole "soft uwu boy transmasc" stereotype can be very annoying because like. I might consider myself to kinda fall in that stereotype. And the way people talk about it is just,, gross?

Like I'm nonbinary but still consider myself partially a boy. And the way people talk about those stereotypes gives the impression that they just see us as girls or women lite. I'm just a gnc guy, but it makes me uncomfortable whenever those jokes are made.

I don't know why dunking on gnc men (cis or trans) is so common, but it just makes me feel icky. Like I'm not dressing like this to be your plaything or the butt of the joke, I'm just existing.

[144]

so there's that one post talking about modern day isekais being a modern day equivalent of the wish fulfillment narrative of "guy goes to place where all the things making him suck in normal society make him king, and has no need for self reflection" and it's pretty good. obviously i started thinking about that goddamn novel.

this whole thing is played both straight and subverted in ORV. dokja as a character doesn't develop. his development is less of changes in his behavior, and more of us learning how deeply fucked he is in the head.

everyone around him changes, for the better or for the worse. he grows beloved. it's wish fulfillment for him, of course - it's his dream. all of this is born of his dream.

and he's beloved but he can never reap the rewards from it and the only responsible for that is himself. because he's stuck in place. because in the end he never stopped being that 15 year old. he starts and ends by himself, in a subway train, reading the same story again and again.

[eliseliedl]

*huge spoilers for Little Goody Two Shoes + Pocket Mirror*

now that Little Goody Two Shoes is finally out, we know the whole truth about the deal Elise made with the demon, and how she got the Pocket Mirror...

so one of the requierements for Elise's wish to come true was to sacrifice "the good company" which is basically, the love of her life (which she found out too late...). she was too naïve to realize she was being played and so her loved one was fed to the demon.

now, we know the girl who is canonically sacrificed is Rozenmarine (and therefore, the canon girl out of the three you can date in LGTS) because one of the wax records you can listen in Pocket Mirror says this:

and in the ending called "Moira" from LGTS (which is the one you get when you choose to date Rozenmarine and sacrifice her) you get the following dialogue:

and on top of that, this is the only ending that explains how Elise got the Pocket Mirror for Goldia...

which is from her friend Lebkuchen, who is also one of the romanceable girls in the game and unfortunately, it is confirmed their friendship is broken by then :(

so yeah. now we also know who the pocket mirror belongs to.

Elise's backstory is more heartbreaking than i originally thought when i played Pocket Mirror. In that game, the whole deal thing sounded like she did it out of pure greediness without thinking about the consequences of her actions. and yeah, she was an idiot for falling for such an obvious trap, BUT she was also a very young and naïve girl who absolutely hated her life, and so when she had the opportunity to leave that life behind she just took it. and when Ozzy (that is, the demon) told her he would take something else in exchange for that, she just came up with something she was sure would never happen.

it was never her intention to doom Goldia. hell it was never her intention to even have a second kid after she had Henri. but her fate was already sealed.

and thus, that's how Goldia's fate came to be...

also rip Rozenmarine :(

[slay-the-heroine]

I have some... Qualms?

Voice of the Prince:

Yes, thank you! I'm glad someone can say something here.

Voice of the Opportunist:

And what, do tell, is making you second guess yourself?

Voice of the Prince:

This time? Well after all we went through, I'm really not positive that she's as terrible as He — and you — are trying to convince us she is.

The Narrator:

She is, but she will pretend to be otherwise.

Voice of the Opportunist:

Exactly. Anyone can play a kind fool, if they are desperate enough. We've seen her desperation.

The Narrator:

You have? What do you mean?

Voice of the Opportunist:

By we've seen, I mean we've heard. You've made it quite clear.

The Narrator:

Have I? Huh.

Voice of the Prince:

You have got to be kidding me...

The Narrator:

I am not. There is nothing to "kid" about, here. You will do best going up there and following my directions, alright?

Voice of the Prince:

I'm not saying we should hesitate. I'm saying we should be thinking this through a little more.

Voice of the Opportunist:

Hesitation comes from stopping to think, you dolt.

The Narrator:

You proceed to the cabin.

- - -

The Narrator:

A warning, before you go any further...

The Narrator:

She will lie, she will cheat, and she will do everything in her power to stop you from slaying her. Do not believe a word she says.

Voice of the Opportunist:

Don't let her get a head-start on it. She is twisted, don't hesitate to be ruthless.

Voice of the Prince:

That sounds... Unnecessary. Whatever you think is right. Don't let yourself get pushed around.

- - -

The Narrator:

The interior of the cabin is dim and damp. Something moldy or fungal is growing in every corner; mushrooms climb the wooden walls in interweaving patterns. Everything looks vaguely covered in spores or pollen, particles hang in the air and swim around you when jostled. The floor is like mud that is halfway to becoming rock. The only furniture of note is a medium-sized, moss-covered rock in the corner of the room, with a pristine blade perched on its edge.

The Narrator:

The blade is your implement. You will need it if you want to do this right.

>>>