#god i hate management

[mumblesplash]

it’s really funny my boyfriend is all “parasocial relationships can be dangerous and i need to maintain an obvious distance from my fans so as to facilitate a healthy online community” and then there’s me who has been seriously considering introducing a patreon tier where patrons get to decide my pronouns for a month

[marimbles]

a little R&R (redecorating and resentment) between escape attempts

[dreamerdrop]

Julian Bashir walks a very fine, maddening line between “self-loathing imposter syndrome who knows almost everyone who speaks to him for more than a minute finds him insufferable” and “incredibly self assured and annoyingly arrogant to the point of a minor god complex”.

He knows he’s attractive, he thinks he’s charming as all hell, he knows he’s the smartest person in the room (while also being acutely aware he’s going to put his foot in his mouth any second now), and he just swings wildly between “I don’t deserve anything I have, none of this is mine, my life is not my own, I am a monster” and “HELL YEAH LOOK HOW COOL AND SMART I AM GUYS ARE YOU LOOKING ARE YOU LOOKING”.

And then there’s episodes that reveal that underneath that annoying arrogance, at the very core of who he is, he really, really just wants to help people, and if he fucks that up he WILL take it personally and hold himself responsible even if there’s no way he could have known and like. Can you imagine what his first patient death was like for him. Can you imagine what a fucking nightmare his brain must be 24/7.

He is somehow as inherently self assured as he is in need of constant validation for his ego because you can SEE him break a little when that ego fails him, even a little, and it’s just.

He’s very fun to write. I hate him. (I love him so much, but oh my god.)

[titaniumions]

ANIMAL CROSSING 1999

[valgeristik]

Ничего не останется от нас, Нам останемся, в лучшем случае, мы

hi. hello. listen to this song

i have so many thoughts about these two. oh my god. maybe i will write it out some day, but for now drawing it out will do

translation will be under the cut! knowing the words does add to the work so i do recommend reading it. or just enjoy the art <3

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heres the translation, color coded according to how i broke it up for the art. just in casies

first page:

Love is scarier than war

Love strikes more true than steel

second page:

More true, because of your own volition

third page:

You run towards all the winds

Let there be pain and eternal battle

Not atmospheric, not earthly

fourth page:

But definitely with you

caption:

There will be nothing left of us,

we will be left with, in the best case, ourselves

[volcanicsleep]

i've been havin' mega hard art block the past month hsdajidbsi, but i managed this which is nice

[blueskittlesart]

i do sincerely want to post new art guys i swear but art school is art schooling again so all i have is like shitty editorial illustration assignments to show for myself rn. like i just spent the last literal five hours working on THIS:

[rowanisawriter]

thinking about zagreus struggling through bullshit office work endless paperwork in that fuck ass back room with the faceless shades omg he is just like me fr

[cometblaster2070]

meeshell's webisode boils my blood for a variety of reason but top of the list HAS to be the fact that her name is meeshell fucking MERMAID and yet ashlynn briar and maddie have the nerve to look absolutely GOBSMACKED upon finding out that she's a mermaid.

it's giving H2O just add water and I am NOT enjoying it. it also very much reminds me of the "ah yes let me just ask my good friend haggravated lassault" meme.

but genuinely this webisode has to be one of the WORST ones by far and the only thing that came even remotely close to saving it was maddie and her giant cup of tea:

this image genuinely cracks me up every time it's just so fucking funny.

[necrotic-nephilim]

fan fact the only canonical world where tim is happy like batman is the future where he and cass are married and share the title

this is from solo #10, last story, written and pencilled by damion scott who was the first main artist of cass's run

THANK YOU FOR THIS OH MY GOD I WANT TO KISS YOU ON THE MOUTH.

i KNEW there was an Elseworlds story i had read where they ended up together!!!! but researching got me NOTHING and i half convinced myself i hallucinated it. i've always made the joke i think it's so funny Tim is the only Robin who's been with all of the Batgirls (Steph in the main timeline, Babs in the Arkhamverse, and Cass in this comic) but when i was trying to find it i doubted myself because i could find NO trace when looking it up, just reference to canon comics where CassTim was heavily implied. damn near gaslit myself.

anyways this whole thing makes me unwell. because i'm of the firm belief Tim could never be happy if he stayed a vigilante his whole life, *especially* if he became Batman. because that is canonically one of his worst fears. it's why i like Tim Drake of Tomorrow (Savior) so much, because it's a personification of those fears and the sort of proof that Tim becoming Batman would set him on a hyper-paranoid overly controlling path he wouldn't come back from. but? the idea that Tim could be happy and healthy as Batman if he was sharing the mantle with Cass? that makes *so* much sense. they represent very different aspects of Batman ('the noble detective' and 'the vengeful knight' pretty aptly display that) and her drivenness and dedication to the Bat as a symbol would be the thing that keeps Tim from falling over that edge. it'd keep him from self-isolating (a thing Tim is known to do when he's falling down a paranoid spiral) and keep him steady. meanwhile he would ground her, make sure she knows she's not alone. that's my only real gripe with Cass as Batman, is that she shouldn't be so alone and 'one man army' the way Bruce is. she needs to keep her support system she worked so hard for. she needs someone to remind her that she's human and treating herself like a weapon 24/7 isn't sustainable, something Tim has tried to get through to her. they're just so good at balancing each other out and DC would never go in the direction of exploring them again, but there was a time it really felt like we were on the cusp of them flourishing as a couple and tbh, i almost feel like we missed out.

[tapakah0]

I'M ****ING FREEE

[laniidae-passerine]

I made my post about Dean Highbottom and then as I was writing my tags realised that his Hunger Games counterpart is Haymitch. and now my head is in my hands and I don’t think I’ll ever recover

[sugaredoleander]

i say this with love. house fanfic writers, if you ever want me to beta something for medical accuracy, i'll fucking do it no questions asked

[hiddenbysuccubi]

The more I listen to reviews and go over Veilguard and finished my second playthrough, the more I dislike it. It's not a 'roleplaying' game. I don't get to play any role - I just get railroaded into one. I miss being able to go up and start a conversation. Or play to set up my origin before being dropped in. I like romance to be present and build, not just only happen in the last minute. I need a game that also isn't hand holding me the entire time - and this example is a nitpick but after EVERYTHING throughout the entire game and every fightscene, getting a pop up about how enemy armor works in the middle of the last fight of the game on my second playthrough - I wanted to throw my controller. And stop being peppy about everything if people are supposed to be dying and the world is supposedly ending! It sure doesn't feel like it! How is blood magic and slavery not touched on at all in the blood magic and slavery city! Also let my character mourn damn it! It's not a roleplaying game, I miss Origin, and I've deleted it off my console to keep space free. At least with getting ME1-3 on sale I can replay something with dialogue. Even Mass Effect 3, and that's saying something coming from me.

[quietwingsinthesky]

was writing this down for an ask but realized i was quickly getting off topic for that ask lmao. let’s talk about Dean’s handprint, the wild misinterpretations of it, and how those have affected how people read Anna covering it during her sex scene with Dean.

We have to establish the obvious first: the number one way the handprint is misinterpreted is to establish a romantic connection between Dean and Castiel from their very first meeting. Because of how popular the ship is, we’re now left with the unfortunate aftermath of people knowing the ship first and the show second, and therefore being more inclined to interpret the show through the lens of the ship. Needless to say, while looking at season 4 through that lens for hints of destiel is fun, it doesn’t lead to a thematically cohesive reading. The handprint is the best way we can demonstrate this. If we take the handprint to indicate that Castiel has been romantically interested in Dean since minute one, or even that he sees Dean as a person rather than an instrument of Heaven’s will at first (put a pin in that), then the rest of his character arc for the season is incoherent and meaningless. To assert that this is what the handprint is about takes the conclusion Castiel needs the entirety of season 4 to reach and transplants it onto him at the very beginning in order to make it easier to find evidence for the ship.

There’s a lot of media out there where interpreting it through the lens of a ship, even one unintended by the author, can enhance the original text. (Lest we all forget our Winter Soldier roots.) Supernatural does not have that relationship to interpreting it to be about destiel. A season 4 where the handprint means Castiel is in love with Dean is a weaker story and does a huge disservice to Castiel’s actual character arc.

So, now that we’ve established what the handprint isn’t, can we talk about what it is? Yes. It’s pretty simple, actually.

Think of it this way: To Heaven, Dean is livestock, and the handprint is the brand telling everyone (but especially Dean) what ranch he belongs to.

Let’s start with the obvious: it isn’t a metaphorical brand at all. It’s literal. It’s burned into his skin permanently (or at least, when the makeup department wants to put it there.) I’d argue that from the nature of it being notable as the only scar Dean has from being raised from Hell and later showing up during his sex scene with Anna that even if we don’t see the handprint, we’re meant to interpret it as continuing to be there for… well. The rest of his life, most likely. And that’s horrifying. The handprint is telling us two things when it shows up: one, letting us know that Dean’s resurrection was intentional and through a manner we as the audience don’t have the information to guess at yet. Anyone who watched the show airing, or watches it now without knowing about angels would have assumed demonic deal intervention as being the cause of Dean’s new lease on life, and this. handily. discards that theory. But secondly, it tells us that this resurrection was violating. All resurrections on Supernatural are.

We assume from Castiel’s line, you know the one, we all know the one, Mr. Gripped-You-Tight, that he’s the one who put it there. However, to then make a further leap that it was Castiel’s personal decision to do so is, I think, a misunderstanding of his role. Take that pin out now. Dean is not a person to Castiel at this point. They’re not friends. Dean is a tool for Heaven to use, a tool that should be honored and grateful to be picked up at all. Make no mistake: Castiel branded him for Heaven, not for himself. Castiel’s a ranchhand. They aren’t in the business of letting the cows run free if they look a little sad to be slaughtered later.

Castiel needs to start here for his arc to be as impactful as it is. He can’t begin rebellious. He has to learn how to doubt. He has to develop a personal friendship with Dean that threatens his allegiance to Heaven. He has to see Anna having chosen to fall rather than obey Heaven and to be betrayed by Uriel being so desperate that he’s turned to killing their brothers and sisters trying to find a way out from under Heaven’s control.

There’s another line I think gets misinterpreted a lot in this initial meeting. “You don’t think you deserve to be saved?” On its face, easy bait for someone looking for shipping fodder, but that misses the actual point of the line. It’s a powerplay. We don’t learn until later why Dean wouldn’t think he deserves to be saved (aside from his general Winchester levels of self-esteem, but knowing that trait about him actually serves as a pretty good red herring to mask real reason Dean is thinking about himself as irredeemable now until the reveal. It’s not that Dean had a low opinion about himself in general, but that he tortured people in Hell and can never forgive himself for that.) , but Castiel does know. All of Heaven knows what Dean’s sin in Hell was. Without saying it, Castiel can remind Dean of it here. This line isn’t about Dean being so inherently good that Castiel had to rescue him. It’s about making sure Dean knows that the only way he can be ‘redeemed’ is through obedience to the heavenly powers who own his ass now. This is how he deserves to be saved. Because God commanded it. Because they have work for him.

And if he doesn’t bow? Then, as Castiel puts it in the very next episode, “I dragged you out of Hell. I can throw you back in.” This threat hanging over Dean’s head won’t go away for the rest of the season, not from Heaven. The only shift is that Castiel’s continued doubt and disobedience levels the playing field between them. They’ll both be punished, rather than Castiel taking on the role of disciplinarian. (It’s a really clever way of dealing with that power gap between them, actually. There’s always a bigger fish.)

The handprint and Castiel’s early conversations with Dean serve as a reminder of the precarious position he’s in. We shouldn’t take him ‘being saved’ at face value, no more than we should take Heaven being good just because they’re the angels in this equation as a given. Dean hasn’t been saved. He’s being used, just as much (if not arguably more) than Ruby is using Sam. (Because at least Ruby truly believes this is for Sam’s benefit, in the end.) And the worst part is how aware of it Dean is. How could he not be? His entire stint in Hell is defined by how Alistair used him. He’s just been handed off to a different owner, one that will still happily push him into the thing they ‘saved’ him from the minute it proves useful. Dean needing to torture Alistair reminds us just how little his circumstances have actually changed. He’s not allowed to say no to this.

So. The handprint is Heaven’s mark of ownership. It’s Dean’s status as their tool, their victim, burned into his flesh and inescapable. What does it mean when Anna places her hand over it?

I’ll lay my cards on the table. I’ve been thinking about this for so long because the aforementioned tendency to assume that the handprint is evidence for destiel means that the scene between Anna & Dean also gets lumped into being interpreted as more evidence for destiel. For over a decade, I have endured people joking about Anna being jealous of Cas for getting to leave a mark on their boytoy. And that’s one of the nicer things the Supernatural fandom will say about a woman who they perceive as a threat to their ship.

So, not to be rude or anything, but fuck Castiel. This ain’t about him.

This scene—It’s a lovely scene, a fantastic continuation of Dean and Anna’s previous conversation into the language of a sex scene—is about two people who have both been used and threatened by Heaven connecting over that shared trauma. Before, Anna gives space for Dean to open up about Hell, but he can’t, not yet, and though she knows what he’s gone through, she hasn’t been there herself. But when it comes to what Heaven has made of them, she does understand. It’s an incredibly vulnerable moment.

You make the handprint about Dean and Cas, and you erase what that scene is about entirely: the way Heaven’s abuse has tangled itself deep into Dean and Anna’s lives, into their bodies, and how they can resist it, if only for a few moments together.

The handprint was never about Castiel at all. It was about Heaven and its dehumanization of Dean.

[horror-aesthete]

Apparently The Terror producer David Kajganich stated in an Q&A what jobs he thinks the characters would have if they lived in the modern day, and I just…

These are all so fucking funny. Love that one of the show’s producers seemingly has peak Terror brainrot