#especially shiny things

[goblinfables]

suddenly got wrangled into drawing some old childhood favorites

[shushmal]

"I think it's sweet," Steve says.

Robin wrinkles her nose. "Nothing about Eddie Munson is sweet. He's a sewer rat, at best. Or like twenty opossums in a trench coat."

"Opossums are cute."

"He probably has rabies."

"You say that about me all the time, so I guess that's good. We'll have rabies together."

"He gave you a rock."

"You give me rocks all the time," Steve says, rolling his eyes. He runs his thumb along the textured edge of the rock Eddie'd handed to him.

"Yeah, good rocks." Robin scoffs. "That one sucks."

[front-facing-pokemon]

[furious-blueberry0]

“Initiate Asajj, pay attention you must”

[soupandsorcery]

Beaux wakes abruptly, mouth dry, heart in their throat. For a moment, they don't remember where they are, and it's...disorienting. Like being in a mental free fall that has their stomach swooping unpleasantly. The light is odd, which doesn't help. Shifting, rippling, blue-green and eerie. There's something there on the edges of their memory, like a half remembered dream. It wasn't a nightmare, they don't think. There's no gripping fear at the very least.

But there's something...

"Smells like apples and heat. Warm. Wet."

The rasping voice cuts through the bleary half consciousness, and it all comes back to Beaux in a rush. They're in their room at the Lighthouse in a rare moment of down time. And Lucanis—no, that voice is Spite's, isn't it—is standing over their bed.

"Shit," Beaux swears, rolling into a sitting position. Their instinct is to defend themselves, even though they're trying to keep an open mind where Spite is concerned. For Lucanis' sake, if nothing else. Leading by example, so the rest of the team will do the same. They don't reach for a weapon, so that can be compromise enough. "What are you doing in here?"

"Watching." Spite's eyes glow stronger in the dim light, casting their own shadows.

Right. Of course.

"Watching me sleep? That's a new level of creepy, even for you." They rub a hand over their face. "You have to let Lucanis sleep, Spite. And the rest of us too."

"He sleeps. And not interested in the rest," Spite says, leaning closer. "Only you."

Beaux frowns, and really, they're too tired for this conversation. "You're not making any sense right now. Can we do this in the morning?"

"No," Spite says sharply. "He won't let me talk to you in the morning. He's protective." He says it like it's a bad word. "Warns me to keep my distance. He's keeping distance for us both!"

"Can you blame him? Generally chatting with demons isn't the best idea."

"Wouldn't hurt you." Spite makes a face, offended. "Not you."

"I've seen you hurt Lucanis, and you're sharing his body. What makes me so special?"

In a flash, he's even closer, one knee up on the cushion, pressing right up into Beaux's personal space. There's really nowhere for Beaux to go, unless they want to jump over the back of the couch and end up on the floor, and they feel caught. Pinned. Staring into those glowing purple eyes, set into a face Beaux is coming to know pretty well these days.

But this isn't Lucanis. Lucanis never gets this close.

Sometimes...sometimes Beaux thinks he wants to. Thinks they can see him holding himself back with effort. But it's always on the fringes of their vision, and by the time they turn to look properly, Lucanis is back to his usual restrained self.

It's Lucanis' hand reaching up to touch Beaux's hair now, though. His fingers sifting through, rubbing the silvery strands like they're precious.

"Soft. Warm. Trembling," Spite purrs, and it's a low, deep sound that thrills something deep in Beaux's gut.

"I am not," Beaux breathes. Their heart is pounding in their chest, and they should be pushing Spite away. Should be waking Lucanis up so he can put an end to this.

Only...

Only.

Spite inhales deeply and closes more of the distance. "Want to keep you. Want to taste you."

"Oh. I—"

An annoyed look crosses Spite's face—Lucanis' face—and he pulls away suddenly, leaving Beaux struggling to remember how to breathe.

"He's trying to wake up. Bothersome. Cowardly."

"Be nice to him," Beaux whispers.

Spite says nothing, just turns and leaves as silently as he came, presumably so Lucanis will wake up somewhere else other than Beaux's room.

And Beaux lies awake for hours afterwards, absently touching their hair where Spite touched it, wondering at their lack of disgust for this whole thing.

[oneluckydragon]

So I decided to spin the wheel by @onefey since I saw so many mutuals getting really cute PMD Teams.

Meet hero Lucky (Girafarig) and partner Biggs (Wimpod). Never in my life have I considered a Girafarig as my potential PMD-sona but here we are despite it all. Even though I was skeptical at first I am now in permanent love.

Gotta think of an Exploration Team name now... hm.

[infamouslydorky]

Hi, sorry if I reblog or post too much on your dash that it becomes annoying. I'm also not stopping. I hope that clears things up

[ellie-shy]

-- Such a tease.

💎💀

[erendur]

Elwing, "the people of Sirion" , drug money and bad decision-making

My two cents that nobody asked for on the Sirion situation (with (almost) no discussion of property rights ! because I think that's beside the point !), for which I will draw a lazy parallel with No Country for Old Men.

So : 1. The Silmaril as dirty drug money

In No Country for Old Men (book or film, makes no difference here because I am going to simplify the shit out of these themes), the protagonist stumbles one day on a drug deal gone bad at the US-Mexican border. There's been a shoot-out, and everybody is dead (I said I was going to simplify). Amid the massacre, the protagonist finds a suitcase full of what is clearly dirty drug money (several millions of dollars worth of it). He decides to take the money, and run away with it to a better life. He thinks his odds are pretty good : he is a skilled hunter, and a Vietnam veteran, so he can move around in the desert pretty much undetected, and can shoot well. He has good survival skills, and is poor. Obviously (spoilers), things do not end well for him. The gangs whose dirty money he has taken are very determined to get their money back (is it really "their" money is beside the point there), are obviously very violent, well-armed, and not squeamish. The protagonist ends up dead.

Now of course the bad guys in the story are the violent drug cartels. But also pretty obviously from my point of view, taking something from violent, determined and ruthless people; that they consider to be theirs, whether they are right or not, is very poor decision-making. It's not about what is morally wrong or right (the DRUG LORDS are in the wrong, obviously), it's about what is a sane decision and what is not.

I don't know about you, but if I were to find a stash of very obviously dirty money somewhere, I wouldn't bring it back home. I would leave its vicinity so fast that I would probably beat a world-record for velocity.

And the worst you think the Fëanorians are, the least sense it makes to keep the Silmaril away from them, especially after they have very clearly proven their determination to kill for it in Doriath.

Pre-Doriath, you could argue that few people knew about the oath. Even people who hate the Fëanorians would frankly be at pains to find anything bad that they did between Alqualondë and the massacre at Doriath (and Alqualondë was not about the Silmarils, or not directly). So the decision made by Thingol or Dior not to return the Silmaril at that point could have been born, in part, of a bad reading of the situation : they did not expect the Fëanorians to attack, or if they did, the expected to win (and thought they were in the right, but I won't go into this now).

Post-Doriath, though ?

Which leads me to : 2. Who took the bad decision to keep the drug money away from the violent drug-lords (and who are "the people of Sirion ?")

So now, lets' get to Elwing - and "the people of Sirion" (I'm using quotations marks on this one, because I have thought about this).

The Silm says that "(...) Elwing and the people of Sirion would not yield the jewel which Beren had worn and Lúthien had worn, and for which Dior the fair was slain ; and least of all while Eärendil their lord was on the sea, for it seemed to them that in the Silmaril lay the healing and the blessing that had come upon their houses and their ships".

It's presented here as though the decision to keep the Silmaril - or, in my analogy, the drug money that the violent drug cartel had firmly asked to be returned - was a collective one. It's Elwing AND "the people of Sirion".

I have several thoughts on that. The first one is that it seems that even though Maedhros writes to Elwing, she doesn't seem to be too much in charge of the situation. We are also told, earlier on in the same chapter, that :,"Bright Eärendil was then lord of the people that dwelt nigh to Sirion's mouths ; and he took to wife Elwing the fair (...)", so it seems that it seems that Eärendil is in charge, and Elwing is...his wife. It's obviously my interpretation, but in spite of the whole "gender equality" among Elves, women seem to have very little power, especially at a political level, so I fully believe that she did not make that decision alone.

Who, then, are "the people of Sirion" ? For me, given the context and the time period Jirt is drawing from when creating his world, it is pretty clear that "the people of Sirion" are Eärendil's, or maybe Elwing's, advisors, or at least the most important people in Sirion (lords and the like), that were left in charge along Elwing when Eärendil left. I don't believe that it means that the decision to keep the drug-money was a democratic one, because we just have zero instance of democratic process/decision making in Tolkien's world. It's all monarchy-this and lord-that.

In any case, these people clearly feel that they cannot give the Silmaril back without Eärendil's approval. What right, as an aside, does Eärendil have to the Silmaril, you might ask (that's the "almost" part of the "almost no discussion of property rights") ? To me, it seems again that given the time-period Jirt is drawing from and all that, he has a "right" to it because he is the lord of these people, and Elwing is his wife. Married women in Medieval England did not have property rights, all of their possessions automatically became their husband's.

But back to "the people of Sirion". Even if you disagree with my analysis that it basically means "Sirion's important people who were left in charge along with Elwing because she can't be trusted to make all the decisions on her own because she is a woman", this would be a mix of refugees from both Gondolin and Doriath.

Now, the people from Gondolin have lived for centuries walled off in their magical city, and have escaped it amid hellish destruction and Balrogs. They would sound like the kind of people that would think that they could take on a few Fëanorians (wrongly, but they only find out about that later). So the decision to keep the drug money would make some sense. They think they can defend it.

The picture the quotation above gives of "The people of Sirion", however, make them look like they are mostly concerned with the Silmaril in relation with the people of Doriath. " (...)the jewel which Beren had worn and Lúthien had worn, and for which Dior the fair was slain."

Could be sympathy, could be the people of Doriath speaking there. And that's where I feel like screaming "give the drug money back to the merciless drug lords, you fool !!!!" Because, if the people of Gondolin get the benefit of the doubt as to how much they know about the evilness and the determination of the Fëanorians, the people of Doriath do not ! They were there ! They fled from the massacre ! How on Earth do they think that keeping the Simaril is a good idea ???

And then, we have the final lines : "for it seemed to them that in the Silmaril lay the healing and the blessing that had come upon their houses and their ships."

They don't want to give the Simaril back, because they think it does them good. The Silmaril as a holy object seems wholly addictive, and no one seems to be able to give it up voluntarily. And to go back to my drug money analogy, would a bunch of refugees be able to benefit from a few millions dollars, and do good things with them ? Sure, they would. Would they put the money to better use than the drug-lords ? Sure again. Does it make keeping it a good decision ? Nope, certainly not.

So, to sum up that long portion, "the people of Doriath", along with Elwing, seem to take the decision to keep the Silmaril because

some of them, the Gondolin ones, might underestimate the Fëanorians' determination / overestimate their strength ;

they think they can't make the decision to get rid of the Silmaril without Eärendil, their true lord ;

they are making decisions based on the sunk cost fallacy effect (the Doriath people have already suffered so much at the hands of the drug lords, we can't give them what they want to make them go away, even though we know first hand how determined and ruthless they are - not rational decision-making - it's the same logic that makes you watch 4 seasons of a bad series because you've spend so much time watching the first 4 that you don't want it all to have been for nothing - or throw good money after bad - yes, that car has been a defective piece of crap from day 1, but I've already spent so much money on it that I have to keep going in the hope it eventually finishes by getting better)

the Silmaril is addictive

And all of this just makes for poor decision-making.

And my conclusion would be :

don't take the drug lords' money

don't think you could do good things with it and that that's reason enough to keep it

don't think that having had your relatives murdered over it should mean that you have to keep it all cost

and just bloody return it if you are asked for it, even if you think that the tone of the letter is a little bit stiff and haughty. It's not about who has a right to the dirty money, it's about saving your own skin.

[sysig]

can i requeeeessstt edgar rescuing scriabin from something |D

Day 6 - There are consequences out here

Bonus, of what he was doing to get stickers in his hair:

[dexter-erotoph]

i havent mentioned how unreasonably happy i am about this….. id say im like one of eyes’ biggest fans i love them so much

[longagoitwastuesday]

I am liking Jujutsu Kaisen, way more than I imagined I would, but I foresee it will let me down and it's keeping me from enjoying this as much as I could haha

I think the characters and dynamics are well set, and I think many of them have an incredibly good and deep potential, but I would be willing to bet they'll not get a proper development, enough for them to really hit. A well assembled set of gears is not enough to make the movement go, you have to wind the clockwork.

I think Gojo and Megumi have a fascinating and very complex dynamic, but I doubt it will be given the time and care that imo it needs to actually work. And it is going well enough for now! One could see the intimacy between them was deeper than the one Gojo had with, say, Yuji and Nobara ever since the very first few episodes despite the fact Fushiguro too was a first year. But the pieces forming what they have are extremely complex, and it just wouldn't be realistic if it doesn't show, even if in a not showing way, or if it doesn't have consequences or implications.

It's one of those dynamics that shape one's life, the way one regards the world, the way one establishes or not relationships with other people. It's one of those dynamics that could be full of fondness, gratitude, resentment, admiration, trust, and that imply intimacy, the good kind or the bad, even if in just the knowledge of someone who's been a constant through your life. It could, and would, imply a myriad of feelings, and probably in such a mix it could imply contradictory feelings too. Even the nothingness would weight, even the nothingness would be significant and meaningful.

Gojo took Megumi and his sister under his wing, the son of a man who murdered him, because of both selfish and selfless reasons. Megumi looks like Toji. What does Gojo feel about this? How does Gojo deal with this? How does Gojo go about taking care of Megumi? Would he walk him to school? Make him breakfast? Celebrate his birthdays making him blow candles? Did he take him to the zoo? Does the relationship between them feel professional or is it something more? Gojo appreciates his students, but is Megumi to him just another student? When Gojo faces Sukuna in Megumi's body, did he see the kid he raised, or does he just see Sukuna in one of his students' body? Did he have one faint wavering instant? And how does Megumi feel about this? Is he resentful of him? Resentful of the situation? Of the selfishness behind his actions? Does he feel like a pawn? Is he grateful? Does he resent feeling grateful? Would he rather not? Does he love Gojo? Does he feel nothing about him other than what he could feel about a teacher that sort of annoys him but knows he's reliable in his strength? Does he think it unfair, cruel or unfeeling that Gojo is close, closer perhaps, with Yuuji or Yuta, considering their story? When Sukuna slices Gojo in two, does the remnants of Megumi's soul tremble?

And not just Megumi and Gojo. Yuuji and Nanami, Gojo and Nanami, Yuuji and Fushiguro, Nobara and the boys, or Nobara and Maki, Todo and Yuuji or Yuta, Gojo and Yuta, Megumi and his sister. Gojo and Geto, even! If the pieces are well set, the dynamics are intriguing, interesting, and have potential to be deep, but then the characters have like two plot relevant scenes that punch you hard, but little more, it's not nearly enough. Especially not nearly enough for the enormity that is shonen dynamics and situations. And the potential existing at all, and then not delivering, makes it all the more frustrating when you're left with something mediocre that could have been so good.

The development of dynamics through not only a few plot relevant gut wrenching moving scenes, but also the smallness of life, is important. The friend who recommended this to me said that those things were just unnecessary filler, but I disagree. I think there's a big difference between a large amount of anime-only filler episodes whose existence is based on the fact they had run out of manga chapters to animate, and moments of quietness. The low stakes character-driven moments of quietness can be so telling and so insightful, and they are so satisfactory when brought back later in higher stakes situations. My friend teased me there was no scene of Gojo making breakfast to Megumi, that it would be an idiotic idea, but it would be so telling. How he makes breakfast, what they eat, if he tries hard or if it's all mechanised, if they have personal bowls or if they use whatever, if he just buys them some pastry on the way to school, if the way they have breakfast changes through the years, or if he doesn't make them breakfast at all! All that would be very insightful on their dynamic and its evolution. All that would give a glimpse on how they regard each other and why, even in the present. All that could become meaningful in tense situations and high stakes scenes.

These moments also let the plot breath; if a lot is happening all the time, if every character is always experiencing trauma after trauma, the entire story is so emotionally draining that at some point you don't even care all that much. Besides, these nothing moments or low stakes plot arcs, besides deepening and developing dynamics, also let some in-world time pass, which would make the intimacy and bond between characters more believable imo; between Yuuji eating Sukuna's finger and their last confrontation in December how much time has passed? A few months? Am I truly to believe these characters are so everything to each other in only a few months?

Without some smallness, some repetition, some daily life, some low stakes not plot-centric development, the dynamics don't hit, they don't truly feel fleshed out, and dynamics as complex as the ones Megumi and Gojo have, or as supposedly meaningful as the one Megumi has with Yuuji or his sister, should be fleshed out if they're going to exist at all. Otherwise they'd risk making the writing feel awkward and fake. Besides, if the dynamics felt well fleshed out and realistic, they would shape the way the characters interact and act, and how they deal with situations, thus being plot relevant.

The shonen genre has so much happening all the time, the stakes are so high, the dynamics are so rooted in big events and the relationships carry enormous weight and implications. Yet they barely get developed, and it feels so stupid, so plain, the absence of something so important noticeable like a constant void, a shapeless nothingness present in every scene. It makes the characters feel like cardboard figures. Jujutsu Kaisen is already getting a better job than many, but I doubt it will do enough for what I've heard, and I fear I am bound to feel let down, and bound to feel unmoved.

After all, if not enough time and care has been given to develop a dynamic, I am not going to feel pressured by the high stakes; if not enough time and care has been given to develop the dynamic between Megumi and Yuuji, as good potential as it has I am bound to feel little for this last confrontation between Sukuna and Itadori, and his effort in getting Megumi back.

[obiscribbles]

Week 13 - June 25th, 2023 'Lean Me Right - From Brave' - Birdy, Mumford & Sons Spotify / YouTube

A moment to enjoy the galaxy around him, connect fully and let his worries wash away with the tides, let the shifting sands help him regain his footing. Deep breaths everyone. 

Enjoy!

View a week early on my Patreon!

[money-and-dandellions]

so, apollo who has swan, white that shine golden in the sunlight, full-sized wings on his back

(among the other birds like raven or hawk, swans are also sacred to him)

by full-sized I mean "big enough to make him fly if needed" wings

[amilva]

ohhhh this new Doctor Who episode radiates fanfic energy in the best way possible ❤️❤️❤️

[moonysfavoritetoast]

AND H DID I MENTION I REAAAALLLYYYY LOVE MY LITTLE TRINKETS THEY’RE REALLY COOL EHEHEH