#humanity fears the ocean

[hippielittlemetalhead]

So uh... I know I should be working on my ST stuff... But I found this in an old WIPs file and brushed it off and felt like sharing.

There is definitely like mild horror and like twisted possessive tendencies shit so please don't read if that's not for you? Not sure how to explain better tbh. Please be careful and mindful and if you can think of ways to better caution other readers after reading it let me know?

It was our platoon’s last day stationed at coastal outpost W-805 and our commander had insisted we all spend the last night with our units. Some sort of team building exercise. My squad was beyond excited to camp out on the beach with a bonfire and to watch the sea at night, despite the dangers that lurked in the water. But then again, most of them had grown up inland, only hearing horror stories and reading government issued informative pamphlets.

They had never seen someone fall off the pier without so much as a ripple or bubbles marring the surface. They had never sat silent through the memorial service of a favorite uncle who hadn’t come home from a fishing excursion, still too young to understand why he couldn’t come home, just that the ocean was to blame. They had never watched as a ship whose crew was known for dumping their waste overboard -rather than stowing it till they reached land again- simply blinked out of existence no more than a hundred yards out from shore.

They just didn't understand that there was a reason most of us raised along the coast moved as far inland as we could as soon as we were able.

And there was a reason so many of us always came back.

But my platoon only had the one night left until we were sent back inland on leave. Something in my chest ached as I watched the waves.

“I could understand their fascination, I guess, if I hadn’t grown up in the settlement.”

My partner smirked at me with a roll of his eyes, “Oh yes, like you haven’t been sulking all day about having to leave your hometown, to go on leave, all day.”

“You’re gonna miss this place more than I am, Guerrulo.”

He shrugged and waved his hand at the bonfire, the flames shooting up as the coals glowed with new life. “Maybe, but at least I can admit that I’ve got emotions beyond ‘grumpy’ and ‘sadistically happy at others’ misfortune’.”

“You’re a fotodamuastis, of course you’re all in tune with your feelings.”

The light from the fire danced along the column of his throat, casting his light mocha skin into copper hues and making his almost auburn hair red as the flames he commanded, as he tossed his head back in a laugh. But it worried me, the way he gazed out past our circle of comrades and friends, sitting about the fire or dancing in the outskirts of it’s glow. Eyes drawn to the moonlit foam of the crashing waves once he calmed down.

“You okay, man?”

“Yeah, just uh- just gotta take a leak.”

There are a couple of calls in his direction and some of our friends try to pull him into their formless dance as he walks past. I knew he would take it harder than most of the squad, he loved it when we were stationed at coastal outposts. Or rather, he loved being able to visit the quaint little settlements that always seemed to pop up about said outposts. He was the only one who seemed to understand when I would sneak out of the barracks late at night to walk along the shadowed shores or sit at the edge of the pier, listening to the waves and watching the moon.

I’m torn from my musings by a yell that’s more of a scream. One of our unit’s lower officers is leaning too heavily against her dance partner and pointing frantically in the direction of the water, her bleary gaze not quite able to focus on whatever it is she's seeing. I follow her hand and my breath catches in my throat.

“E?! Esai, no!” I'm up and moving before anyone else gets past the shock. Shedding what layers of clothes those I pass try and grab onto to hold me back. I shiver at the kiss of ocean mist against my skin as I run to the familiar figure making it’s slow way against the surf. The waves seem to be coming higher now, reaching out to him and pushing us apart. But I know that if I let it have him then I would never get him back. So I push against the waves, seafoam clinging to what little clothing I have left and the spray stinging my eyes. I wipe the water from my face as a wave takes him under.

A scream rips through the air and my throat burns as I realize that haunting wail came from me. I dive in after him. The water is a little calmer under the surface, but only just. I see Esai’s body floating eerily still in the churning current and make my way to him. Now that I’m fully submerged in the water I can hear it, a heartbeat, pulsing all around me. It's calming, asking me to stop, wait and think for a moment, let out that pesky bubble of air in my lungs and breathe.

I grab onto his wrist and pull his limp form close to me. My lungs burn and my eyes sting from the salt and my limbs ache from the effort to keep us from being torn apart again by the rough current.

“Now child there is no need for that.”

Something pushes against my side and I gasp out in pain. Saltwater fills my lungs and I sigh in relief from the burning. “Wha-what the hell?!”

“So, they were right,” Something like distant affection and relief washes over me. “It has been so long since one of Our children has come home.”

“You’re children? But there are no nerodamuastis.”

“Yet here you are. I felt that boy was special, now I know he was destined to bring you home to Us. Come my child, come to Us.”

“I can’t leave him.”

“He is a child of Pyr, he belongs to the surface and We shall ensure that he is retur-”

“He belongs to me!” There’s a ripple of what I can only describe as amusement and the water about us grows colder. “He- he belongs to me, and I belong to him.”

Amusement is replaced by indignation. “You are Ours. You would dare deny Us that which belongs to Us?”

“I may not be able to get us back to the surface, but I swear- If you just let him die I swear you’ll only have two corpses to feed your creatures instead of a child to claim. A child to call your own like all the other gods.”

“Very well.” The voice is softer and the water presses down as the current pulls us farther out to sea. “If We are to present you to the others as one of Our own then prove yourself. Your friend is near death, but the embers burn enough to be stoked to a flame once more.” I look down at the too pale form in my arms. “Save him. Bestow upon him the gifts your heritage grants you and We shall allow you to reside, with him, in Our domain.”

It takes longer than I would have liked. With the fear coiling in my stomach and the frustratingly poor hold I had on my newly awakened magics, the power I can feel pulsing in time with the push and pull of the water about me is like a fruit pit covered in oil. But I’m able to grasp onto it just enough. Then he’s gasping in my arms, eyes blinking back the salt and hands grasping at me to ground himself.

“Wha-what in the name of- Sean?”

“Hey there E.”

“Sean what is going on?”

“You died.” His body goes stiff in my arms, “O-Or nearly. I brought you back.”

“Th-that’s not possible. That sort of magic died with the- with the nerodamuastis… Sean, tell me you're joking.”

“So you succeeded my child. Such ability for one so young and untried,” Pride, pleasant and soft and warm. “We are pleased.”

“You'll keep us then?”

“But of course, the two of you shall be grand prizes to show Our siblings.”

“Sean, what did you do?” I look into his whisky coloured eyes clouded by fear and steely resolve. “What sort of deal did you strike with that fu-”

“I am yours.”

“What?”

“I told Them that I am yours and- and that you were mine. They gave me the power to save you to prove that we were worth keeping… together.”

His face twists in fear and unease. “Sean, I- I’m sorry but I don’t understand.”

“I love you.”

“Sean-”

“I couldn’t just let you die. Because I love you.”

He takes a shaky breath, eyes closed like he’s trying not to think too hard and failing. His hands clench and relax in spasms where they rest on my shoulders until finally he opens his eyes. “I-I’m sorry Sean, I can’t. I just- I just can’t.”

There’s a rushing in my ears and I can feel the tremors of anticipation as something in the water shifts. My skin feels too tight as that slippery little seed of power I had been wrestling with settles deep in my chest and something more springs up from it. “Don’t worry dearest,” I held him close, placing a lingering kiss on his brow. I smile as he shivers at the swell of my magic that courses from me and through him, marking him as mine. The Mother hums in approval about me. “You will.”

[sci-bax]

Sebastian Solace sleeping peaceful in 4k hyper resolution oculus meta quest 2 quality

Drew him sleeping cause of this:

Same drawing but without the slight darker filter over it:

I wanna draw fish man angst

Also its 4am so im going to sleep goodnight, or goodmorning idk

[relatablepicturesoffinnmertens]

[burb27]

“ Humans are not telepathic, it is common knowledge.” the Vulcan scientist thought to themselves. “ They are an adventurous species though.”

Which is why the Vulcan was curious why they were denied exploration to the deepest parts of Earth’s oceans,no submarine or crew. There was still so much unknown about that part of the planet. Curious.

Humans are not telepathic but when the Vulcan began to protest the scientific necessity to explore every human in the room spoke simply but firmly at once “ We don’t go that deep in the ocean.”

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

phone calls my detested

[wormboyfriendcentralstation]

what the tags to my posts have taught me is that the wurthering heights stans are eating devouring enjoying while im locked in Moby Dick Jail with the ahab starbuck emotionally draining yuri that lives only in my mind-

[peachpaws0]

16 - S1 E16 Ocean Of Fear

[theearnestonion]

I LOVE when humans see or hear shit they can't explain so they make a beast out of it

[adventuretimesnips]

"there's no reason to be afraid of things that are beautiful." - jake to finn

s1 ep16: ocean of fear

[noxtivagus]

dfhaskdfjsdkf good day 😭

[jtownraindancer]

@divine-victory as always you and are on the same wavelength

i walk a fine line between “i’m asexual and i hate how much the world revolves around sex” and “sex is way too stigmatized and people should be able to be more open about it if they want to”

[uriayx]

me making self insert AUs when i could just make a new oc (i am very gay)

[relatablepicturesoffinnmertens]

[yanqings]

I need. I need to get to a large body of water. expeditiously

[heritageposts]

What does life in North Korea look like outside of Pyongyang? 🇰🇵

Hey, I'm back again with a very scary "tankie" post that asks you to think of North Koreans as people, and to consider their country not as a cartoonish dystopia, but as a nation that, like any other place on earth, has culture, traditions, and history.

Below is a collection of pictures from various cities and places in North Korea, along with a brief dive into some of the historical events that informs life in the so-called "hermit kingdom."

Warning: very long post

Kaesong, the historic city

Beginning this post with Kaesong, one of the oldest cities in Korea. It's also one of the few major cities in the DPRK (i.e. "North Korea") that was not completely destroyed during the Korean war.

Every single city you'll see from this point on were victims of intense aerial bombardments from the U.S. and its allies, and had to be either partially or completely rebuilt after the war.

From 1951 to 1953, during what has now become known as the "forgotten war" in the West, the U.S. dropped 635,000 tons of bombs over Korea — most of it in the North, and on civilian population centers. An additional 32,000 tons of napalm was also deployed, engulfing whole cities in fire and inflicting people with horrific burns:

For such a simple thing to make, napalm had horrific human consequences. A bit of liquid fire, a sort of jellied gasoline, napalm clung to human skin on contact and melted off the flesh. Witnesses to napalm's impact described eyelids so burned they could not be shut and flesh that looked like "swollen, raw meat." - PBS

Ever wondered why North Koreans seem to hate the U.S so much? Well...

Keep in mind that only a few years prior to this, the U.S. had, as the first and only country in the world, used the atomic bomb as a weapon of war. Consider, too, the proximity between Japan and Korea — both geographically and as an "Other" in the Western imagination.

As the war dragged on, and it became clear the U.S. and its allies would not "win" in any conventional sense, the fear that the U.S. would resort to nuclear weapons again loomed large, adding another frightening dimension to the war that can probably go a long way in explaining the DPRK's later obsession with acquiring their own nuclear bomb.

But even without the use of nuclear weapons, the indiscriminate attack on civilians, particularly from U.S. saturation bombings, was still horrific:

"The number of Korean dead, injured or missing by war’s end approached three million, ten percent of the overall population. The majority of those killed were in the North, which had half of the population of the South; although the DPRK does not have official figures, possibly twelve to fifteen percent of the population was killed in the war, a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens killed in World War II" - Charles K. Armstrong

On top of the loss of life, there's also the material damage. By the end of the war, the U.S. Air Force had, by its own estimations, destroyed somewhere around 85% of all buildings in the DPRK, leaving most cities in complete ruin. There are even stories of U.S. bombers dropping their loads into the ocean because they couldn't find any visible targets to bomb.

What you'll see below of Kaesong, then, provides both a rare glimpse of what life in North Korea looked like before the war, and a reminder of what was destroyed.

Kaesong's main street, pictured below.

Due the stifling sanctions imposed on the DPRK—which has, in various forms and intensities, been in effect since the 1950s—car ownership is still low throughout the country, with most people getting around either by walking or biking, or by bus or train for longer distances.

Kaesong, which is regarded as an educational center, is also notable for its many Koryŏ-era monuments. A group of twelve such sites were granted UNESCO world heritage status in 2013.

Included is the Hyonjongnung Royal Tomb, a 14th-century mausoleum located just outside the city of Kaesong.

One of the statues guarding the tomb.

Before moving on the other cities, I also wanted to showcase one more of the DPRK's historical sites: Pohyonsa, a thousand-year-old Buddhist temple complex located in the Myohyang Mountains.

Like many of DPRK's historic sites, the temple complex suffered extensive damage during the Korean war, with the U.S. led bombings destroying over half of its 24 pre-war buildings.

The complex has since been restored and is in use today both as a residence for Buddhist monks, and as a historic site open to visitors.

Hamhung, the second largest city in the DPRK.

A coastal city located in the South Hamgyŏng Province. It has long served as a major industrial hub in the DPRK, and has one of the largest and busiest ports in the country.

Hamhung, like most of the coastal cities in the DPRK, was hit particularly hard during the war. Through relentless aerial bombardments, the US and its allies destroyed somewhere around 80-90% percent of all buildings, roads, and other infrastructure in the city.

Now, more than seventy years later, unexploded bombs, mortars and pieces of live ammunition are still being unearthed by the thousands in the area. As recently as 2016, one of North Korea's bomb squads—there's one in every province, faced with the same cleanup task—retrieved 370 unexploded mortar rounds... from an elementary school playground.

Experts in the DPRK estimate it will probably take over a hundred years to clean up all the unexploded ordnance—and that's just in and around Hamhung.

Hamhung's fertilizer plant, the biggest in North Korea.

When the war broke out, Hamhung was home to the largest nitrogen fertilizer plant in Asia. Since its product could be used in the creation of explosives, the existence of the plant is considered to have made Hamhung a target for U.S. aggression (though it's worth repeating that the U.S. carried out saturation bombings of most population centers in the country, irrespective of any so-called 'military value').

The plant was immediately rebuilt after the war, and—beyond its practical use—serves now as a monument of resistance to U.S. imperialism, and as a functional and symbolic site of self-reliance.

Chongjin, the third largest city in the DPRK.

Another coastal city and industrial hub. It underwent a massive development prior to the Korean war, housing around 300,000 people by the time the war broke out.

By 1953, the U.S. had destroyed most of Chongjin's industry, bombed its harbors, and killed one third of the population.

Wonsan, a rebuilt seaside city.

The city of Wonsan is a vital link between the DPRK's east and west coasts, and acts today as both a popular holiday destination for North Koreans, and as a central location for the country's growing tourism industry.

Considered a strategically important location during the war, Wonsan is notable for having endured one of the longest naval blockades in modern history, lasting a total of 861 days.

By the end of the war, the U.S. estimated that they had destroyed around 80% of the city.

Masikryong Ski Resort, located close to Wonsan. It opened to the public in 2014 and is the first, I believe, that was built with foreign tourists in mind.

Sariwon, another rebuilt city

One of the worst hit cities during the Korean War, with an estimated destruction level of 95%.

I've written about its Wikipedia page here before, which used to mockingly describe its 'folk customs street'—a project built to preserve old Korean traditions and customs—as an "inaccurate romanticized recreation of an ancient Korean street."

No mention, of course, of the destruction caused by the US-led aerial bombings, or any historical context at all that could possibly even hint at why the preservation of old traditions might be particularly important for the city.

Life outside of the towns and cities

In the rural parts of the DPRK, life primarily revolves around agriculture. As the sanctions they're under make it difficult to acquire fuel, farming in the DPRK relies heavily on manual labour, which again, to avoid food shortages, requires that a large portion of the labour force resides in the countryside.

Unlike what many may think, the reliance on manual labour in farming is a relatively "new" development. Up until the crisis of the 1990s, the DPRK was a highly industrialized nation, with a modernized agricultural system and a high urbanization rate. But, as the access to cheap fuel from the USSR and China disappeared, and the sanctions placed upon them by Western nations heavily restricted their ability to import fuel from other sources, having a fuel-dependent agricultural industry became a recipe for disaster, and required an immediate and brutal restructuring.

For a more detailed breakdown of what lead to the crisis in the 90s, and how it reshaped the DPRKs approach to agriculture, check out this article by Zhun Xu.

Some typical newly built rural housing, surrounded by farmland.

Tumblr only allows 20 pictures per post, but if you want to see more pictures of life outside Pyongyang, check out this imgur album.

[shima-draws]

How, and I mean HOW, did over half of our country look at a sexual abuser, racist, rapist, and fascist who's been charged with MULTIPLE crimes and is calling for genocide and think, "Oh yeah, I'd love to have this guy as my president! <3333"

I fucking hate this country

Are you fucking serious