#extrakerestrial

[rxttenfish]

Now that you've answered the difficult one here's an interesting one: What about Miranda and Polly?

Shipping meme.

EXCELLENT, SOMETHING I CAN PROVIDE OPINIONS ON

this is! certainly a ship that i like a lot, but my relationship to it is a lot more fraught than some of my other miranda ships, for sure. it's one that i go back and forth on again and again, way less sure on how stable they'd be or how much this would work out in the long term.

in terms of positives - miranda and polly already get along very well! i always view the ROs as exceptionally close friends, and i think the friendship between miri and polly is much the same. polly chases experiences and good times, explores and pokes her fingers into anything she can reach just to say that she's done it, and miranda's a person who's also fundamentally curious, desperate to see and experience so many things that she's never been able to before and which come from an entirely different world to her, and so polly bringing miranda along feels natural. miranda's definitely more hesitant and less overt about experiencing things, often needing convincing or reassuring, but she wants her friends' approval and polly likes helping other people step outside of their comfort zones, especially when they just need a little encouragement.

polly loves leading other people to fun new experiences as much as she enjoys experiencing them herself, and she gets the feeling of being cool, mature, more experienced in a way with miri that fits very well with how polly is also an older sister, someone who just as much wants to be the cool older sibling that everyone can brag about. miranda, getting that positive reinforcement from polly and feeling like she's with someone she can safely experiment around and with, likewise makes her more confident in exploring new things and having new experiences, less hesitant and defensive when something new is presented to her.

the issue is that polly isn't always a good influence. polly has issues taking things seriously and this can mean she overlooks how uncomfortable miranda could be at any given moment and how much of her protests might be sincere, especially if something presents a unique danger to miranda that polly's less familiar with. polly's less confrontational, so she's less likely to call miranda out on something, at most providing smaller comments or leaving, neither or which would help miranda's reactiveness. i don't think anything polly has going on would prepare her to deal with the merkingdom and the crown, which would serve as a total blindside for her and, at worst, make her lash out at miranda in a lack of understanding for why miranda can't just not listen to the merkingdom. miranda's a character who very much needs commitment in the long term, and dedicated commitment at that, which is something that polly would have issues with and would want to shirk away from that much responsibility.

miranda, in comparison, would want to put polly up on a pedestal and imagine her as the coolest, the most fun, the best at navigating the land with all of its confusing social norms and culture and environment, and this means she would wholly miss whatever faults polly would have and be far too forgiving when it comes to polly's mistakes. at worst, miranda could very much end up believing that she deserves any hurt that polly accidentally causes, and this is an issue that doesn't have a good solution, since polly would want to avoid that confrontation and miranda would not even mention it at all, just assuming guilt and acting accordingly. neither of these characters are very good at talking about their feelings, and there's not really a catalyst to make them talk about their feelings to each other and to force them to open up.

ultimately, i see it as a fling, closer to something like friends with benefits. i often say that i see a lot of the ROs just passively dating each other at different times without making a big deal out of it, and this is one of those times. i could easily see them hooking up from time to time solely to enjoy themselves with each other, and then breaking it off with no hard feelings and going back to normal. not something long term, not something serious, just a good time dating friends.

[dandeyrain]

This is just a reminder that you're so fricking smart and I appreciate having you in my life and on my dash.

AWWWW KERES I ADORE YOU

[acesartblog]

An OC based on one of my closest friends @extrakerestrial. A pink cat enby who loves paranormal stuff and being a daredevil. Their name is Kit!

[aidenaces]

@extrakerestrial

Calico Critters Akira reference

[igniida]

Hiatus notice: To no one’s great surprise this blog is on hiatus for the forseeable future. I’ve been feeling very burnt out with writing Idia and simply don’t have the muse or inspiration I used to have for him. I’m sure my muse will come back, it always does, but until I feel like being here I’m putting this blog on hiatus.

Edit: Catch me on my personal @extrakerestrial

[rxttenfish]

Ship opinions: Hazel x Moss Mann

Shipping meme.

AH, KERES, YOU TORMENT ME WITH ANOTHER PC SHIP

again, i could not! tell you very much about hazel's personality or characterization? they are introverted. they are very devoted to the comfy. they have been described as a "smol bean". this is not much for me to work with, least of all because none of these are the kind of character that i tend to go for and enjoy the most, and all lead to a very passive type of character, less the one to start things and more the one to follow along with them.

moss in comparison is, again, much more defined. theyre very dramatic! very much nosy and interested in everyone's business, but in a way that gives me the image of vicariously living through someone else, or at least being able to manipulate the image of people into something that may or may not be reality. there is a potent power in that, in being able to spread rumors and to change how others think about each other, and yet it should be also said that moss broadly just contents themselves with this. they do not want the spotlight, they do not want to be the one in focus, they want to be the medium through which it passes, the means of delivery, the messenger that nonetheless controls the flow of what they possess.

i suppose, looking at it from this way, i could see it working? hazel isn't dragging moss into the spotlight, and i imagine they'd be a good repository for all that moss has to say and share, and i could at least see them being a good listener. i don't know how much hazel would care for drama, if at all, especially if they interrupt the described "lo-fi" vibes they're said to have. if nothing else, they'd be a good wall to bounce ideas off of for moss, good for refining their craft. it might also be good for moss to have someplace that isn't as high-energy and high-passion, but i'm also less sure what else there'd be beyond that.

basically i think it's an alright ship that i could see, but i don't have anything more than that.

[rxttenfish]

Can I hold your trash can for you m'butch?

HELL YEAH HELL YEAH HELL YEAH HELL YEAH (chanting as i punch the trash can)

[funtasticfunman]

@extrakerestrial

Suck it liberals

This is what Real Men look like

[rxttenfish]

Are Polly and the Coven any different in your mon prom redesigns? Or any notes on ghosts and witches in general for that

POLLY IS ONE I HAVE BEEN PUTTING OFF FOR

A REASON-

okay to start with, the coven. they're actually pretty boring? namely, because with the redesigns, they're just humans, and that delves into how the magic system works. some humans are born with basically what's an innate pool of mana - workable magic that their body creates and replenishes on its own. a significant chunk of it gets used up in pretty typical metabolic processes, it can especially be used to bolster the immune system when it needs to, but if you practice with it or just luck out, then you can use your own natural pool of magic as a source of magic, to cast spells or charms or rituals or what have you.

however, in the redesign universe, anyone can cast magic, they just need a source to supply the juice for the working. for people like the coven, this is often just themselves, but even if you don't have that natural internal source, you can still find a source elsewhere. sometimes this is a naturally occurring magical aquifer, sometimes its someone else with a pool of magic they can spare you, sometimes its a magical object, whatever. just find something that makes magic into a workable form that you can use. people with their own internal supplies can also use a different source too, and often will do so, whether that's because they need more than what they alone can supply, or just to not exhaust themselves. it's not unheard of for creatures like sapient spells to offer their services loaning magic out, and the deal the coven has with the goddess is similar to one of these.

(the most interesting thing here is that... well, the goddess would be something called a Magic Generator, which is a bit like a sun. magic exists everywhere in the form of universal background magic, but has to be gathered together in a mass great enough to actually be used for spells or workings or what have you. magic generators are the source of this universal background magic, as they're big bundles of raw magic that's being internally made and shed into the universe. unfortunately, this makes them a bit volatile to be around, and are a bit like having a hurricane walk around and talk to people.

funnily enough, while they are the stand-in for gods in the redesign universe, they aren't worshipped or have their own religions, unless said magic generator went out of their way to try and found a religion centered around themselves. the goddess is just calling herself the goddess here. that's a decision she's making for herself. other people can and would view this as kind of a chud move, though i'd have to think more about it to determine what her relationship with the coven is like.)

and polly is

a ghost

but the thing to remember is that

horror is my favorite genre

so when i say polly is a ghost, yes, i do mean she is literally the remaining imprint of someone who has died, and that she does still have the personality that we know and expect of polly.

but she's also a ghost story. there's not a lot of happiness or easy to digest topics going on beneath polly's surface - she has been trapped inside of herself, inside of a body that is not her body and at once is as she knew it to be and also has been left in a box and left to rot and she feels all of these things at once, this duality of nature, of sense, of self. of being ripped in a thousand different directions and held inside a glacier at the same time, unable to move on, unable to shift, forced to be the same person on the same day at the same hour unless she wants to be gone for good, lost to a world that seeks to snuff her out. she can only clench tighter and tighter, bear her teeth down harder and harder, try to hold herself together, but in the act of doing so, become a perversion of herself, a façade of who she may have been, once, all the more divorced from the humanity and life that she used to have and devouring the warmth and light around her in order to do so.

it's complicated. ghosts are supposed to move on. they're supposed to get their affairs in order, find the thing that's stuck them there, and finish it. fade away. let the final death take them.

ghosts are not supposed to stay there, stuck in place, stuck somewhere to rot, trying to dig fingers they no longer have into the world around them and leaving scratch marks behind.

its natural to be afraid of death. but the dead are supposed to stay dead for a reason.

[igniida]

Where to find Keres

@blightend / Amity Blight of The Owl House

@pixieacoco / Coco of The World Ends with You

@daeamour / Sawyer of Monster Prom/Camp

@extrakerestrial / Personal

[funtasticfunman]

@extrakerestrial

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

#i actually enjoyed Mr Reed as a VILLAIN a lot#& i enjoyed that they didn't make him redeemable or tragic or anything#I feel a LOT of his horror came from the idea of two young girls being stuck with a strange man#which only compounds as he argues their religion with them despite first seeming knowledgeable#& further compounds as his lies & deceit are shown then FURTHER compounded#when his true violence & danger is shown#i feel this is a fear a lot of women esp religious women who are forced into closed quarters w men face#i don't think this fear was like the main object of the movie but it was THERE & it was COMPELLING

(from @extrakerestrial)

Yeah. Again, this is not a fact that flatters the default cultural politics of this website, but it's a fact nonetheless--many, many religious women deeply fear nonreligious men. We don't know exactly why Barnes has a contraceptive implant (it is almost impossible for active Mormon missionaries to be sexually active (except with their companions, which I'm sure happens occasionally because why wouldn't it happen occasionally)), but it's possible it's because she fears sexual assault. Paxton is also clearly sizing up Mr. Reed as a potential sexual threat at various points in the movie. When she finally stabs him, it's in part because he's standing behind her playing with her hair and whispering to her about her undergarments! The idea that this is someone with less-strict on-paper morals tends to compound that (I say "on-paper" because, of course, a lot of conservative religious men are loathsome hypocrites who are at least as dangerous themselves). The LDS Church is also at fault here, both for not giving these girls psychological tools to be less intimidated by Mr. Reed to begin with and for not looking harder when they go missing when they're supposed to be at his house--which hints at another common religious-girl fear, that your community might not even take your side if things go wrong.

i feel like one of the reasons people didn't like heretic as much as they thought they would, is because we got too used to villains being "likable" as people.

in recent horror, human villians tend to be either 1) extremely humanized and given a lot of sympathy/background on why they do what they do. think jigsaw for example 2) a goofy, exaggerated, sometimes supernatural slasher contrasting over the top gore.

so when people see a truly insufferable villain, they dont know what to do with it. it's meant to be uncomfortable when he rants at the girls for hours about how everything they know is wrong. his jokes are meant to fall flat and make him look pathetic. the true horror IS to be trapped by a "reddit atheist", so if you found yourself annoyed at him, it means hugh grant did a good job.

for god's sake the guy keeps women in cages and he based his house's layout on dante's inferno, he wasn't meant to be likable.