#but like it's a more philosophical 'why'

[leconcombrerit]

I have eight pages of notes furiously scribbled in the little time I have between one patient and the other, waiting for the bus, on the bus, and even a few lines added while walking and you know what's worse, I definitely won't have time to organise and type it all before next Saturday.

That being said it reminds me of my literature major days and my brain hadn't done such ungodly mental gymnastics for about ten years, so I can't even be mad.

[vaguely-concerned]

sometimes I think of all the on-the-surface warm, well-meaning but deeply ineffectual advice and attention john gives harrow through harrow the ninth (make some soup and get some sleep! get a hobby! don't be so hard on yourself! self care harrow! as long as I need take no actual responsibility in this relationship whatsoever I would have loved to be your dad!) set up against the stark truth that with his other hand he has been staging her attempted horrific murder again and again and again like a living nightmare on the logic that it will 'put her down or fix her'. and then I find that I wish there is a hell. a special hell where twitch streamers turned necromantic death emperors go

[there-are-4-lights]

from here

[faaun]

Jack Marsh (2005), Friendship Otherwise - Toward a Levinasian Description of Personal Friendship

[shouldprobablybereading]

Hot take of the day is that I think sanderson not letting adolin murdering sadeas have any real consequences killed like 95% of interesting debate on the morality of it

[strawberryclementine]

Better Call Saul should've had a scene where Howard recites poetry. He's kind of Gale-coded if you squint (and IMO you don't really have to squint too much) so I would've loved to see him read something he cared about to maybe Jimmy or Chuck. It doesn't even have to be poetry, it could've been a treatise or novel or something, but it would/should have been about ethics or justice.

[cheemken]

Greetings! What would be the outcome of the au? A bad end where everyone is defeated by the Timekeeper? Vertin sacrifices themself to protect everyone or do the suitcase fam capture her and attempt to free her ? this au is kinda stuck in my head now lol, like the idea of arcana revealing herself like the geto scene with the brain if u seen jjk.

Hi hey, I'm so glad you're interested in my au hahaha

Idk much abt jjk tho like idk what scene that is but that sounds cool hahah

Anyways

My initial concept is that Vertin came back yeah, and a few starts to notice, I think it'd come to the point where Sonetto and Regulus confronts her?? Bc there's clearly smth wrong w Vertin

Ofc, Arcana plays her part well, and as Vertin, she deflects, saying she's fine, just tired and still a bit shaken after escaping from Manus Vindictae. It was a miracle how she escaped, she thought she'd die then and there

But they know there's more to that. It'd be funny tho but also on brand if Regulus herself knew smth was amiss bc ofc, Vertin using her wand more and more, but the thing that set Regulus off was the fact that Vertin was using her left hand, she's right handed as far as Regulus knows, and ofc, how she uses her tuning arcane skill, how it's like a seasoned magician

And it got to the point that while they're still in the Foundation, Vertin kept her distance, always wandering off by herself, wandering the halls like a ghost, everyone was starting to get worried

And until one night, where Vertin was there in the courtyard, well,, Madam Z and Tooth Fairy tried to talk to her, to go back inside, it's dark out already, and hey c'mon, she's their daughter at that point, and they just got her back from Manus, so seeing Vertin like this, it worried them

Imagine as they try to approach her, Z just stops dead in her tracks, grabbing Tooth Fairy's arm, stopping her, as they both hear Vertin chuckle darkly, slowly turning towards them, and as she did, Arcana's wand formed at either sides of Vertin's head, and her silver eyes turned pale yellow, and she smiles ay them, the same godforsaken smile Arcana always has on her face

And ofc, that lil drawing comes to play, the strings on Vertin, it would be so so fun if like,, w those, and w the influence of Arcana's magic, she managed to take control of a few arcanists too. Like can you imagine her just attaching the strings on the arcanists Vertin had saved, and taking control of them like puppets, that'd be so cool and bc ofc in c2, wasn't there a part titled Puppet, and bc if I remember right, Arcana also called Vertin her puppet

Like that'd be such a cool concept, Arcana using Vertin as a puppet, and w Vertin's hands she uses other arcanists as her puppets too

But also the mental image of all of the arcanists in Vertin's suitcase just fights off Manus followers on each floor of the Foundation buildings, look, I have a concept, I wanna write it, I just don't know how to execute it well, it has Schneider in it, Arcana brought her back or smth to make it hurt more, and the Schneider and Sonetto fight is just cbmxnd ough

But yeah, her defeat, idk, I want it to be some temporary defeat, ofc me being biased, as Sonetto was fighting off Schneider, Regulus rushes to where Vertin is, and ofc, she and Arcana fight lmfao

But do you see my vision when I say Arcana uses Regulus' line against her, y'know the thing Regulus says before her ult right

Imagine Arcana using that, just having Regulus pinned, one hand on her neck, the other on her cheek, her thumb trailing upward to her lower eyelid, pressing down hard, as she whispers in Vertin's voice, "are you ready... To be blinded?"

And Regulus spats out, "are you?" And uses her ult on both of them

Look look it's good on paper and it's a good mental image I can't just execute it well here but I hope you see the vision cbsmnd

But yeah, after that, and more psychological mindscape stuff of Regulus trying to save Vertin, Vertin was saved! That's a good thing right? Arcana was gone, so were the Manus followers, but it was so sudden, it shouldn't be that easy, right

Ofc it's not, Vertin wasn't saved, she never will be. Arcana's wand was still w her, lying dormant, waiting to be called out again, waiting till it finally corrupts their precious little Timekeeper.

[transmechanicus]

Never underestimate the power of a comfy hoodie to ward off Lovecraftian madness🖤

[invinciblerodent]

an unforeseen side effect of my boy discovering the power of friendship, and the fact that emotions and human connections are good actually, is that it comes with simultaneously discovering that he's at least lowkey attracted to two types of people exactly: those who project confidence on the outside, but are sweet, soft, and in need of comforting on the inside (not entirely unlike a frightened animal), and pretty men with long, brown hair looking at him through lowered lashes with big, dark eyes.

a downside to that is that his newly found friend group is half one, half the other, and Gale kind of sits in the exact middle of the Venn diagram like an appealingly plump toad on a rock.

Look at him. The thought behind this face is very much an ".... oh, I'm not indulging this thought. I'm burying this so quick, and so deep, that it suffocates immediately."

[kaus-quietis]

Greetings, Anon! Thank you for your questions. I have to admit, even in the past, I refrained from posting reactions or speculations as BSD chapters release, but you already knew that, so I will indulge you. I'll answer each part of your ask. BSD ch113 thoughts below, manga spoilers ahead.

♠ "What was your raw reaction?" It was not a calm, quiet one, I can tell you that. No, in fact I screamed with excitement as if I was in a Roman amphitheatre and my favourite gladiator just got back up on his feet, out of sheer force of will, grinning and sweaty. My scream was the fastest way I could "verbalize" the fact that I was overjoyed to see him alive again, even if it's in the 15th century, and on top of that he seemed to be some kind of spy monk all chained up and having what seems to be a ridiculous amount of fun getting caught and discussing with Bram. This is all very in-character for him.

♠ "Was that something you expected?" Absolutely not. Yes, yes, I truly did not expect a jump back in time and this infobomb drop, despite the fact that we did get a few hints that Fedya seemed present at past events when all the other character really appeared younger than him (near the end of S4ep3, where on a rooftop Fedya says "It's not V, it's Five" and I am seriously like bruh I give up what I want to say is I need more data to work with, what am I supposed to do with this, rationally speaking?). However, we can't yet extract anything conclusive from this. Is he ageless? A time-traveler? Immortal? Does he revive? When was he born? Was he born at all or created differently somehow? Is he of BSD's world, or an external one (Beast liveaction finale anyone?)? Is this all within the Book and he's just… idk flipping the pages? Anything is possible and I refuse to spend a lot of time working with incomplete data. This is not very follower-friendly (as in, my blog is basically inactive in-between), I know and I apologize, but if after many chapters there will be something worthwile to add to my essay (with what Fukuchi said in ch113 I already have important stuff to add), under those circumstances I will consider writing an update. It's not yet time.

♠ "<Was that> something you felt different for the characterization we all made for Fyodor?" Hmm, I would hesitate to refer to a characterization "we all made" for him (I wish! T o T), because my analysis and blog are but a tiny tiny part of the fandom (I think…? I wonder about my Fedya essay's reach or influence sometimes). But let's say here we refer to one that comes close to what I tried to show in my essay. In that case, I would say that there is nothing to fear here in this chapter, but it's very understandable to have massive trust issues at this point. We went through a miserable, miserable time when the previous ones made the guy who visually memorized a full deck of used cards somehow not notice Chuuya wearing contacts and fake vampire teeth, despite knowing the vampire race since… well, the 15th century! I cannot even begin to describe what I felt reading ch111.5-112, I was beyond repulsed. Lovers of "villain" characters understand the following thing well: in most media, our fav has to lose, he has to die or disappear at some point, with rare exceptions. I, too, know this well, but that was no compelling way to solve BSD's villain threat. I still don't know how BSD will wash away that narrative stain, as I consider it, but then again one of the reasons we love this manga is that it keeps us on the edge of our seats and the most absurd yet fun turns can happen out of the blue. We can reasonably ask ourselves: ok, what is the purpose of showing Fedya's backstory now? If it's for build-up, we can already start grinning like Cheshire cats. What could possibly be next? I'm cautiously optimistic, things look in-character and good to me. Very good, in fact.

♠ "Or do you think it is later on going add some depth to his character?" Backstories are shown usually for a very clear purpose. We don't know the purpose yet, but if it's done well, then… then my whole essay could be at risk lmao (and I love this sensation). New info could add so much depth to his character, in fact, that his previously observed traits could gain new meanings, or even contradictory ones. Whichever it will be, I think it's pretty safe to bet on "his backstory will be very relevant".

♠ Bonus: even if I enjoy going "full analytical" and enter conference speech mode when asked, I am driven by strong emotions, by which I want to say – I am not immune to assassin/spy monk Fedya chained up like that and having the time of his life again. I missed seeing him entertained like that, and his current …………. visual representation in the.. uh. ..chapter, yeah, well, it's doing things to my Depeche Mode-worshipping heart.

Anyway, to conclude with some facts we know as of now:

a. Fedya and Bram are inside the Bran Castle, close to the Romanian city of Brașov, "deep in the Carpathians" although not built at high altitude itself. It's basically a fortress built between 1377-1388, with several later additions. The BSD representation of it is very accurate to how it looks today. It's near perfect, actually, I applaud.

b. Bram mentions King Matthias, and in this context that can only mean Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary for 1458-1490. The meeting between Fedya and Bram thus happens some year during his reign, when Transylvania was still part of the Kingdom of Hungary. What is still strange to me is that I can't pinpoint Bram's exact position, as in… were his people independent? Or avoided? I feel like I need to re-read past Bram-related chapters to think about this.

c. Nevermind Bram, the things that Fukuchi says, those are the real goldmine here, but the gold is still… encrypted? I mean: Fedya made the DoA plan (more than confirmed now), and because Fukuchi asked for the condition to keep casualties under 500, Fedya respected that and we got entertained for like half of the whole BSD manga: using coin bombs for terror, for economic/political destabilization, using the vampire infection to avoid further violence, these things. The more you think about it, the more insane it gets. Since Fedya agreed to this condition, it means causing (more) deaths and violence were expendable things to him. (But imagine this: Fukuchi said "I want max. 500 deaths" and Fedya said "Yeah I can do that", now if Fukuchi would've said "I want max. 2 deaths" I really believe Fedya would've still said "Yeah I can do that". What can't he do, especially since murder for murder's sake isn't his goal?). This is in perfect harmony with his "necessary deaths only" approach so far, and much much more. There are far more implications in what Fukuchi said, which I won't type out here now. Gotta keep them and build around them for a future analysis update.

This was a rather long read, but still, I hope this satisfies your curiosities, Anon. *bows dramatically & disappears in a borderline insufferable ENTP way*

[ask-artsy-oncie]

I wish I was not an unintelligent manchild.

[crunchycrystals]

i dont think the fall guy is the best movie ive ever seen or even my favorite. but by god is it the most meaningful to me bc it inspired me to write again after a horrible depression writing slump

[beastsovrevelation]

In case someone stumbles across this, mind lending a hand to a girl who's on the verge of banging her head against a wall?..

What do you think Anathema and Newt's daughter would do as a career? And, what would she have studied, or be studying, at Oxford?.. She kind of strikes me as someone who'd be interested in journalism. But, I've thought, maybe she studied English Literature, or, Hell... Mathematics. I'm struggling to catch that particular thread, yet it comes up immediately as other characters are interacting with her.

Maybe, a vibe comes to your head. Which is... Very odd of me to ask, because all the information about the character is in my head, not yours. Her name's Agnes (obviously). She's a witch. She's a lesbian. Her favorite gemstone is amethyst. She likes scarves and shawls... She's anxious to meet her familiar. Her faceclaim's probably Alba Baptista. I don't know what else to say about her right now.

[faaun]

ok let's catch up quickly

[wizardmp3]

"philosophy is pretentious" love? my best friend love is pretentious? platos symposium opens to talk about love amd hes one of the big three socratic philosophers. what is love by haddaway is pretentious? baby dont hurt me, dont hurt me no more?

[dykesynthezoid]

Was v lucky to get to see a screening of a new documentary about casteism and brahmanical patriarchy in India but also I’m supposed to be discussing it in class later and if I’m being honest the fact that the last ten minutes of the film were basically one big advertisement for Hindus to convert to Buddhism means I’m like hmm well I do have some stuff I could say about this but I don’t want to overreach