#exposed to danger

[fictionz]

New Horror 2023 - Day 20

"My clothes have but to fall and you will see before you a succession of mysteries."

"The Lady of the House of Love" by Angela Carter (1979)

This can only be described as deliciously decadent decay. Carter does a magnificent job of just painting the most awful, crusty, gothic place you can imagine.

💀💀💀

"Can't tell if the embers are dying or my eyes are."

"Smoke and Cedar" by Abby Howard & Alina Pete (2016)

I was loving this but it ends so suddenly. Sometimes you want to leave them wanting more, but not starving for narrative.

💀💀💀

"You're the bitch that brought our misfortune!"

Exposed to Danger dir. Yang Chia-yun (Karen Yang) (1982)

This one's kind of a slow build-up, and not much mystery, but the tension does eventually hit along with a neat twist. The final confrontation is a great sequence.

[uncanny-tranny]

Amatonormativity has destroyed so many people's understanding and acceptance of themselves, and it's heartbreaking.

Yes, it is normal to be in your 20s, 30s, or older and not have lost your virginity, had a first kiss, or a partner. It is normal to say that you aren't ready for those things, too! It is normal if your life doesn't follow the "college graduate -> engagement -> buying a home -> 2.5 kids and a dog" trajectory that so many people have idealized.

So many people associate maturity with losing your virginity, or having a first kiss, or a serious relationship, and I think that's a dangerous association. Maturity isn't gained through those things, and you don't have to have those experiences to be considered "mature" or "grown." It is not a bad thing to go at your pace. Nobody else can live your life but you. If you end up having those experiences, that's great! But it should be done because you want to experience them, not because you feel "broken" and "immature" without them.

[cookiedough77]

i think it is genuinely insane how gabriel threatened to kill felix in that one episode

"then you know all i have to do is snap my fingers to make you disapear from here, think of your mother" HELLO???

also gives felix so much more reason to be so desperate to get that peacock miraculous

the idea that gabriel could kill him with the snap of his fingers at any given moment, its terrifying

[taitavva]

NEVER GO HOME, DON'T SLEEP, DON'T EAT JUST DO IT ON REPEAT, KEEP?

[365 - Charli XCX / alt vers under cut]

[luigisgreenoveralls]

thinking always about Mario and luigi's first adventure after landing in the mushroom kingdom

[doctorsiren]

Fulfilling a childhood dream 💖

now to figure out how to not fall and die while using them

[bananonbinary]

its not as flashy as some of the other youtubers who have done this but i'm really enjoying ann reardon joining the "oops my fun and lighthearted youtube channel has become investigative journalism exposing wild shit" club

like i subscribed cause i liked watching u make teeny tiny food but sure, yeah, we can talk about bullshit wellness products that you can buy on amazon that have illegal levels of radiation. please go on.

[witchofthesouls]

Have Miko ever lost her squishy?

She's hyperaware of her favorite toy. The closest she comes to losing it is whenever it needs to be washed since Miko drags that thing everywhere.

The mechs had learned the hard way to completely buckle her in with a swarm of seatbeats to limit her mobility. Otherwise, she'll be jumping up and down, clawing up their interiors as she explores every inch to escape to fetch her squishmallow.

Arcee had witnessed the impressive sight of Miko rattling inside Bulkhead so hard that the armored vehicle was bouncing on his wheels.

(The only mech she doesn't attempt to claw up is Optimus. Not only does he have extensive room for her to pace and wander, but he has no issue with shaking her by the scruffbar with his seatbelts like a naughty kitten with resounding firm 'no' with his own field. Not enough to completely overwhelm her, but to make a point that she can't carve his sensitive components.)

If the Autobots had an industrial sized washer and dryer at their base, Miko would have planted herself right at the windows to watch it. Only leaving to grab the closest 'bot, climbing all over their frames and insistently tugging EM fields to change the washer to dryer and dryer to Miko's little servos.

And if the Autobots had laundry facilities, they would need to sparkling proof it with so many locks and perimeter sensors. Miko would try to tumble inside a washer cycle, and Raf would try to snack on the machines' exposed cables and the detergent.

[awesomecooperlove]

Smart meters are designed to provide the government with detailed information about:

• your energy usage,

• your movements around your home,

• how you spend your free time, and

• how many people are in your home at any given time.

This constitutes an unconstitutional invasion of your home by the government, as established in the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. (Crimes against humanity) I DO NOT CONSENT!

🛎️🛎️🛎️

[m0thxy]

oh, you live in a city? YOU KNOW WHO ELSE LIVES IN A CITY?? BATTERY CITY??? BLI WORKERS. GUARDS, SEIZE THEM‼️

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

putting my prediction on record now that the coming decade is going to see the rise of viral-marketed fancy at-home water filtration systems, driving and driven by a drastic reduction in the quality of U.S. tap water (given that we are in a 'replacement era' where our current infrastructure is reaching the end of its lifespan--but isn't being replaced). also guessing that by the 2030s access to drinkable tap water will be a mainstream class issue, with low-income & unstably housed people increasingly forced to rely on expensive bottled water when they can't afford the up-front cost of at-home filtration--and with this being portrayed in media as a "moral failing" and short-sighted "choice," rather than a basic failure of our political & economic systems. really hope i'm just being alarmist, but plenty of this already happens in other countries, and the U.S. is in a state of decline, so. here's praying this post ages into irrelevance. timestamped April 2023

[lemurballing]

i know everyone is onboard with mimic onscreen murder via whisper BUT; here are a couple nonlethal ways you could also make him less of an issue (under the assumption that IDW can deal with killing him accidentally, but that a main character outright personally killing him is unlikely…)

1: blinded - it’d restrict his reaction time and awareness in combat, and remove his ability to become aware of current appearances and colors; he wouldn’t be able to mimic anyone accurately anymore at a certain point. he’d lose his most effective tool, and if he gets anywhere he’d have to learn how to be actually imposing or effective.

2: loss of limbs - 1-2 arms or legs, in a permanent loss he can’t regrow or shapeshift around (though he probably could be given octopus regeneration…). similarly would restrict his ability to fight, and since he can’t shapeshift a new one, he wouldn’t be able to imitate anyone accurately at all unless they also have lost the same limbs. (i don’t think this option would work canonically, considering mimic can imitate things like tangle’s tail, when he doesn’t have his own tail - but maybe with the phantom pains/whatever mental trauma from losing limbs?)

3: my favorite: burn damage (ie from an explosion) - scar his skin over, removing his ability to shapeshift (assuming it is tied to his skin). he’d still have his own body, but would be entirely incapable of shapeshifting as well as in immense pain.

my own thoughts? i’m tired of mimic hanging over the storyline, especially when all he does over and over is try to kill whisper secretly. i am sympathetic to tangle not being willing to kill - but yeah, mimic can get killed, i’m cool with that.

it’s going to drive a stake between tangle and whisper until tangle can come to terms with what it would actually say about whisper and herself if she managed to kill mimic - or between tangle and silver, if he did the deed itself - which would likely mean separating them for a time… i’m thinking the big reason tangle is so against killing isn’t because of any practical reason or any belief mimic could reform, but she’s afraid of ‘falling’. she’s a little flexible, but tangle DOES have strict morals, and ‘no killing’ is high among them; it would make her or whisper a Bad Person if they killed anyone, even mimic. additionally, tangle is the sort of person who would regret it - her stopping whisper is either trying to spare whisper from feeling that guilt (even though whisper wouldn’t), or herself from feeling it in proximity.

of course, with mimic dead and whisper finally at ease, tangle would see why it worked - i think she could change her mind. it’s just in the interim while they pursue that goal that she’s going to be conflicted and/or hurt.

also - with this mimic plot being started in T&W, released to take place around issue 16 iirc, and lasting up to issue *76*, mimic has been around and been a problem for SIXTY issues - a longer stay than starline had!! mimic doesn’t deserve that sort of linger, even if he’s only sparingly been present IN the comic - he haunts whisper like starline haunted surge. (additionally, starline is a more compelling villain than mimic ever was - the guy who just killed his teammates for a bribe? the guy who’s just chronically such a sellout coward he betrayed multiple other people before the DC and even after reflecting on his own actions in shame, did not stop himself and turn to a better path? he’s a coward, not really a ‘villain’ - a scary mask and a tiger lying in wait, scared off if you turn eyes on him.)

last little aside - as hilarious as mimic’s fumble (“wrong number…?”) in 75 was, that storyline REALLY didn’t deserve that ending - a rugpull accidental reveal when mimic had already been leaving SO MANY CLUES to his true identity. he’s genuinely such a bad actor i don’t know why he ever considered it as a career path - he should’ve gone for runway model or special effects or something. not being given away by his wishy-washy, halfway-presence despite saying he was enthusiastic to be helping out, missing during critical moments, being captured on live footage as the phantom rider wearing duo’s scarf instead of the glowy scarf? honestly, mimic, just leave the scarf off - if the real one’s all glowy, it’s not going to make a difference that you have this dull knit scarf on, just pretend you can disable the scarf to remove handholds!! this guy has a flair for the dramatic and he’s the sort of guy to be the Most Obvious among us importor, has never won a single game except for the other 9 year olds in the public lobby beefing the vote. especially since tangle and whisper had prior experience with trapping him, it would have been FAR more satisfying to see them setting up casual tests of trust to throw suspicion on him… nyeeeeggghhh

[gregoftom]

greg not only being tom’s attack dog, but his therapy dog, sheepdog, guide dog, watchdog, service dog

[sunlaire]

those Hut Point days would prove some of the happiest in my life. Just enough to eat and keep us warm, no more—no frills nor trimmings: there is many a worse and more elaborate life. The necessaries of civilization were luxuries to us: and as Priestley found under circumstances compared to which our life at Hut Point was a Sunday School treat, the luxuries of civilization satisfy only those wants which they themselves create.

those days he spent living in a hut with his friends were the happiest of his life. Cherry 😭

[fixaidea]

Genuine - if somewhat passive-aggressive - question:

Have you ever been to a dedicated women's toilet that didn't have separate stalls with doors that lock from the inside? Like - a women's bathroom where you just have a line of exposed loos like the urinals in the men's room and you were expected to do your business like that?

I never have, never mind if the toilet was a sit-down or squatting model, or an, ahh, gravity-operated one.

And the debate is somehow always about toilets, not spaces where you CAN reasonably expect to see butt-naked strangers, like swimming pool changing rooms or communal showers. But in your average public toilet? The only way I could tell if the woman in the next stall is trans or not is if I climbed the wall between the stalls and looked, and who would be the weird pervert then?

[smile-files]

the beginning of luke doing... this...

he doesn't yet think to call himself layton's apprentice, so he's borrowing emmy's title and role of assistant: i must be helpful to the professor, so i must remain at his side even when the situation puts me in mortal peril! even when i'd be scared out of my wits! it totally isn't because i feel safe in the professor's presence... no! it's out of obligation! (etc. i've been over this before.)

what especially irks me here is that when layton has emmy and luke promise to get out of harm's way should it arise, luke just tells him to be careful! he doesn't even promise! literally every time the concept of promises has arisen, mostly layton promising to keep luke safe or uncover the specter's secret or other such things, luke hasn't believed it... and here he is, ducking away from promising to keep himself safe. what the heck!