#i also have a problem with length

[selfinserttothestars]

Been thinking about @crystallizsch ‘s snake hair art lately

[featherbreak]

Nona added in the spirit of truth: "And I can't help chewing the ends with plaits. I want to steer clear of Temptation."

feat. Noodle(s) and a mustache r--

coloured contacts & silly faces test for summer!croptop!Nona (aka "it's too hot to wear three layers on public transit right now, ayfkm?")

[lemongogo]

[foggyfanfic]

Themes vs Realism

Saw an old debate about how isolated the Encanto is and it got me thinking about my own headcanons.

I watched the movie, saw the windows and wine glasses and thought “Oh! They must have trade, glass requires a specific sort of sand and while glass blowers would be relatively common, the odds they had somebody who knows how to make glass frit are pretty low”. And I can back up that argument with research and facts, buying glass is getting more expensive because we’re running low on sand with the right chemical composition, glass frit production would be more likely to happen in towns near silica rich beaches, where as Alma’s hometown looked like it was in the middle of the forest. Nowadays, not every country in the world has the right sand, when I worked with glass blowers they imported their frit from I think a family in Sweden(?) that are like one of the last few people making frit. So glass is actually a very big deal! I digress. Basically, realistically, the fact that they have glass means that they must have some trade.

But that’s completely irrelevant to the movie, isn’t it?

The movie is all about healing from generational trauma, Encanto being completely isolated is better for the movie’s themes. It’s like how we all love the deleted scene where Bruno argues with Alma and says “I wish I was dead” but the writers cut that scene because it gives Bruno confronting Alma on Mirabel’s behalf an extra bit of punch if he was never willing to do so before. Realistically, a deeply unhappy, almost forty adult who is as blunt as Bruno would have had that argument with Alma; thematically, Mirabel’s mysterious Tío couldn’t muster up the courage/passion to confront the movie’s antagonist until he was doing it for love. Realistically, it is actually necessary for Pepa to control her emotions because she can create hurricanes and that sorta disaster could wipe out the village; thematically, Pepa needs to be allowed to let her feelings flow through her without anyone snapping at her about it. Realistically they must have trade; thematically, they must be completely isolated.

There isn’t really a good way for canon to bridge this gap as far as I can tell, in story telling themes usually take precedence over realism, especially in a fantasy setting. But for a lot of people (like me) the funnest thing to do when writing fanfic is throw in a dash of realism and see what comes out of it. Obviously, the way you want to reconcile this is absolutely up to you. I personally care more about the movie sticking to themes than I do it being realistic or conforming to my background knowledge, I’m fully expecting to have most of my head canons disproven when they release more material. That said, for the sake of fic, I think asking questions like “Where are they getting the raw materials to build that” is a great launching pad.

I don’t know how to word my conclusion. That year I spent working with glass blowers is going to butt heads with my suspension of disbelief for the rest of my life? Realism is great for fanfic but not so much in short stories like movies? My head canons will never be canon and it’s better that way?

[emcapi-gaming]

a reunion

Ardwin grabbed the fancy hourglass and used the power of Gay Yearning to yeet herself directly to the void ASAP after MSQ, haha

(p.s. there is a sequel (nsfw))

[fandom-zoomer]

I think I may have come up with the best worst tma time travel “fix-it” au (imho)

Inspired by Ketakoshka's 'dread spawn' idea in their dread child jon series, Dribbledscribbles' origin story for the dread powers and extinction entity interpretation in their extinction!jon fic (and some more of the latter in their post-eyepocalypse fic too), as well as my own love for making unholy (aka fun) fusions of things and sandboxing eldritch interactions with the 'mundane' . . .

. . . I have created a post-canon, Somewhere Else, time travel ""fix-it"" story that I think might be unique (at least I've never seen any fics like it– but if I'm wrong then please please share the link!! or dm me if it's your own work hehe but no pressure!!)

(mag 160+ spoilers after this point!)

(i'm about to wax poetics here (hopefully coherently)—so you can read the story-ramble OR you can scroll to the TL;DR at the bottom to skip it & spoilers to read the nutshell & see if you're interested :3)

so get this...

The big Change happens right? But this time the Extinction is a bigger player in the game than canon, and ultimately deeply marks Jon throughout the eyepocalypse.

So when the finale happens, since Jon is now connected to the epicenter of the whole show, his 'death' and the panopticon's destruction has the simultaneous effect of baiting the Dread Powers into the Hole (via his voice in the spools of tape)– and also killing everyone trapped by the Dread Powers in the world via Jon the walking detonator thanks to being entrenched in the Extinction's influence. —Combining both his best and worst plans and realizing his worst nightmare: killing everyone and spreading the Powers to an unknown number of worlds to wreak even more havoc.

How did this happen?

Simple—but first some backstory for context.

The Extinction was more of a 'lurker', much less "outgoing" than its 'siblings'. And when it was "grandiose", well. . . it tended to leave no survivors. Thus its unrecognition by those like Robert Smirke or Jürgen Leitner.

To go back even further, the Dread entities were originally one cohesive entity with many faces and limbs. Its faces reflected the same developmental complexity as the sources of their manifestation. So those with the most diverse species feeding them held the widest capacities. Namely: the Hunt, End, and Extinction. But being a singular entity, it didn't mean much.

But as human species' family lines develop and grow more complex cognitive ability, more esoteric Dreads developed, and more faces become more complex. And the Extinction was right there from the beginning as more species died out one by one. Quietly. (...maybe? 👀)

Over time humans discovered the Powers and bonded with them, then started to classify them. From here, the Dread entity fragmented into Dread entities.

They developed their own 'consciousnesses' distinct from the hive 'mind' they once were. And, eventually, sapience. Self-awareness. Desires. Personalities. But they were still connected, part of the 'system'.

The Extinction and the Web (newer, but always sapient) are a quirky pair, the Web seeking control over everything and the Extinction seeking ultimate entropy and change upon its catastrophe.

It's hard to distinguish the Extinction exactly, its work misidentified for others with few under its own unique umbrella. Things 'unique' to it get missed due to being a misnomer and not getting clocked. (But that is the nature of the Dread Powers after all.. being a fragmentation of their original singular mass.)

...

The Extinction represents the fear of disaster that will bring about the end of everything—everything you know, love, need to survive. Everything you built, worked for, hoped for. The destruction of stories and of life, of the very history written by your land—your home.

Your community. Your society. Your species.

You.

Annihilated in totality.

The Extinction represents the fear of those that come after you to replace you—worse than you, different from you. Leaving you and your history and stories (the driver of your continued existence) forgotten forever. The fear of life moving on after you, ignorant and apathetic. Your story meaningless, irrelevant.

Your community's story. Your society's story. Your species' story.

Your story.

Erased and written over.

The Web represents the fear of being controlled, fate being out of your hands—by malevolent authorities out of reach, by abusive companions or relatives, by invisible forces far beyond the human comprehension. Spinning, winding, twisting, pulling each decision in your life made for you. Until destruction of the self by your own hand.

Your struggle for change futile. Your feet following the same path. Your fate determined for you.

You forfeit control—your feet march you to your bitter demise.

The Web represents the fear of being conspired against. Scheming, plotting, planning your downfall. The loss of everything you hold dear, worked for, bled for. Spinning, twisting, scripting lies about you. Your credibility falls to pieces, your world shatters, and your story distorts.

You are kept alive by the spreading of your story. And the people have decided to trust the manufactured tale.

You are forgotten—twisted into an image of something wrong.

...

Sometimes they're at odds. Where one seeks to manipulate the threads of everything endlessly, the other seeks to destroy it all so thoroughly, with such finality, as to mutate it– the schemes, the pawns, the gameboard itself.

Sometimes they're complementary. Where you watch as you lose everyone you cared for one by one, spiraling down a path darker into entropy, the irreversible nightmare, and wondering if you ever really had free will in the first place– if anyone did.

What if the end for you really was just another game to them? What if this wasn't their first round? What if you're just the next step in the grand scheme, larger than even your own universe?

Alright, now with that out of the way, let's bring back the question.

How did the Extinction change Jon, and how did this cause the altered result of the finale?

The Web has been there since the near beginning, pulling Jon along and guiding him to his next milestone in the plot. She had known the world would come to an end one way or another, and wanted to bring it about on her own terms so that she—they all—could escape it.

So when the Web saw what the Eye was doing, she had an idea. So she aided their acolytes, seeing her sibling as the perfect way to bring all of them together for the final step. And the Web set her own card onto the board: Jon.

Jon had a natural disposition for the Eye; from stubborn curiosity to the reckless pursuit for answers to even the coldest cases. Whether he knows it or not, his mind is a gaping maw for horrible knowledge—chasing after experiences disguised as answers to his burning questions so dreadful they leave scars on him like sigils of a looming doom.

While he has no affinity for the Web's machinations, he is still hers. She has no issue with guiding agents from across the court, she knows how to share. Especially when it benefits her. Jon archives each event, every little detail, with such care and readiness that he makes the perfect vessel to pull them in—to guide them out. He'd flourish best as her tool in the Watcher's sphere.

After the Watcher's Crown and the Dread Powers came into the world, the Extinction started to make its presence known. It seeped into other Domains and fed on the people's dread for permanent catastrophic change, on their fear of ruin and total desctruction. And as Jon traversed them and lived through their fear, so was he marked by the Extinction.

It seeped into his skin like oil and burned through his veins like acid. It tainted his trails with the radioactivity of human hubris and greed, twisting and mutating both the mundane and Dreadful as he passed. It closed its grasp on him with the tightness plastic rings and infected his Perceived routes with the stench of mountainous landfill and the thickness of city smog.

The Web and the Extinction had a complex relationship, but in this moment they guided the Archivist in synchronous song like a soldier being led to his final mission: dropping the nuclear bomb.

Did Jon know?

...

No.

The twines of manipulation layer labyrinthine over everything, above and below and through every angle and dimension. Even the Nigh-Omniscient Antichrist and his All-Knowing God will never fathom its depths.

He might never know that he helped start the Extinction's ritual: Raze the Earth.

Or that both the Web and the Eye knew and did nothing. (honestly, the latter's only there for the show)

So when Martin stabbed Jon and Melanie lit the gas mainline, the threads around the world snapped and the glowing light of humanity's greatest sins exploded over everything—

—and they prayed—

—and they wept—

—and the Dreads rushed out torrentially. (pulling a few strays with them)

Now for the part you were all waiting for (well I was)—the Heart of this AU

The Dread Powers and the ones who were dragged with them were transported Somewhere Else– a parallel world in a parallel universe. But they were. . . Changed from their previous/original selves.

The tag-alongs—Martin & Jon of course, but also Annabelle Cane, Oliver Banks, Simon Fairchild, and Arthur Nolan—replaced their parallels at birth, and gained partial or full amnesia to their past lives. But their personalities are altered, reflecting some aspects of their pre-finale personalities.

Except for Jon. Jon, the Pupil of the Eye, the Warhead of the Extinction, the Spools of the Web, the Archive of the Dreads and linchpin to their escape. . . was significantly destroyed in the center of the storm. He got it and so much worse—a stick so short its existence was inverted.

While they did get reach the new universe, they had to reconstruct their linchpin/Archive that they're still connected to so that his total destruction doesn't tear them apart as well (being an Extinction avatar that's now deeply connected with them, he's capable of "taking them down with him").

When Jon was reborn, he was literally thrown into the world like a meteorite, landing with an explosive blast that rendered the surrounding area a lifeless wasteland in moments. High radioactivity and a deathly curse left few flora or fauna returning before wasting away soon after. Those that 'survived' did so by being infected by the Extinction or Corruption.

It would permanently remain uninhabitable, and it would take months before the withered stillborn spawn of the sapient eldritch Dread Entities would crawl out of the jagged crater on its own, none the wiser to its tragedies.

TL;DR

The Web manipulated Jon's attempt to put a stop to the Entities' reign, utilizing the Eye's easy influence to help the Dreads escape the world and into a fresh new one before they were also destroyed in the Extinction's "Raze the Earth" ritual (set up by using Jon to weave toxic-filled veins throughout the world he was traversing that'll explode at once 'grand finale' style).

Jon, now deeply binded to the Entities' purest forms and still an Extinction time-bomb, was mostly destroyed during the trip to Somewhere Else and the Entities had to reconstruct him so his death wouldn't destroy them too. This led to Jon being reborn a near completely different being (with some of him preserved) as functionally the direct spawn of the Dread Powers, replacing his parallel counterpart from the new world.

[milkweedman]

Trying to finish something I was supposed to do ages ago--spinning a contrast color for this sock yarn. The fleece (southdown babydoll) had a pretty wide range of grays, most of which I blended together. But I intentionally left the darkest gray out of the mix so that later I could spin up just that, and have a dark gray for the toe and heel. So, now I'm doing that.

One thing I did not realize until now (due to intentionally avoiding working with the darker gray locks) is that they are all much shorter than the other colors of gray, and a lot of them are way finer too. That's not ideal, so I might not use it for the toe--it won't be as hard-wearing of a yarn and the toe/ball of the foot is what wears out the fastest on my socks by far, so. It's fine though, I just want some kind of decorative element that uses the fact that this fleece had lots of nice colors.

I'm also not that surprised, I guess. The longest locks were always the very light gray ones. Hard to know why without seeing the sheep though.

[carcarrot]

is this the equivalent of a work pizza party

[jaevy]

your room was square

i once noticed from there

in your bed, as you slept

and i held my breath

everything had its own place

and i wondered what space would i take

in the order you kept

[c6jpg]

i should have paid more attention to the first part of the little saurian world quest bc i am now fully invested

[psychotic-nonsense]

TW FOR BODY HORROR

Stranger Things: Vecna's Generals AU - Character Sheets

Feel free to use these for reference, as these are the current designs and relevant information. This will override some old information posts, as their contents have been added to/tweaked/removed, but here they are for reference:

Original Master Post

Original Song List (Links still valid and playlists are updated)

Hawkins Civilians title expansion

[kaijumilf]

me 2day in the middle of a MCR related episode VS me almost exactly two years ago in the middle of a MCR related episode

[jenny-dreadful]

.

[eyeless-smiles]

@eyeless-smiles asked:

31. for one muse to choke the other

@mad-hunts replied:

perhaps egging someone like the corinthian on really wasn't a good idea after all. but in times where barton felt like he was a cold dead thing rather than a person, he wasn't necessarily known for making the best decisions. whenever he had a therapist, barton remembered the doctor actually warning him against engaging in risky behaviors like this one; because he'd divulged to her one day that sometimes he'd purposely try to initiate a fight with someone just to feel something. to channel how shitty he felt inside into physical pain, because at least that was something barton always knew how to deal with. but the other going straight for the throat changed things.

without much warning, he could feel himself being pushed into the wall by the corinthian and an impressive amount of weight bearing down on his windpipe. whatever nerve barton hit — it must've been one that was deeply personal because there was no way he'd do this over some petty insult. that might've just been wishful thinking, though, because what did he truly know about the figure? barton soon dug his nails into the other's hands after attempting to push his arm down, to no avail.

they were sharpened as usual, and due to the fact that he had no weapons, barton just prayed it'd make him at least shrink back a little. short, ugly gasps started to escape barton as he tried to scratch the corinthian's face then, ❝ aha, and here i — i thought you... you liked me. but it seems like, ❞ it took him a great amount of effort to speak at the moment, so he paused. ❝ being told you don't have the depth or the warmth to be... ❞ barton sucked in a deep breath while he kicked at the other's legs, ❝ anything more than what you are now stings, doesn't it? i would know. people have considered me to be a monster for years. ❞

he looked the corinthian straight in the eyes as his vision started to black out at the edges, ❝ i think that there is a certain beauty in darkness, though. i think you're beautiful. ❞ barton could've been saying this to get the other to remove his hand from his throat, yes, but it sounded genuine in a very twisted way. like he was feeling both a mix of titillation and panic.

The rush of an adrenaline filled heartbeat fluttering beneath his hands is tantalising to the monster. It's soothing to feel the pulse of life beneath his own palms. But it's also a cruel reminder of exactly what Barton has that the Corinthian doesn't.

Life. True, genuine life. The Nightmare was made only to imitate it. His heartbeat is fake. A command he can switch on and off on a whim. As is his breathing. He doesn't need air. Not like the man choking out beneath his palms. And the Dollmaker has the audacity to point it out. To tell the Corinthian it doesn't have the depth to experience humanity. And it hurts because it's true. Worse than the burn of sharpened nails clawing at his visage and knocking his shades askew to reveal grimacing maws.

And then Barton tries to claim he and the Corinthian are alike.

How, when Bartons pulse thumps like a rabbit beneath his hands, and his body fights so desperately for air. His struggling is useless. The Corinthian is strong. Far more so than any mortal. The Dollmakers life is held to the whims of the Nightmare, and this brings him some comfort. Knowing that it can snuff out the very thing that Barton unknowingly flaunts so brazenly in his face.

He certainly didn't expect a compliment to come tumbling out of those lips. His mein cants to the side as a hint of confusion creases the Corinthian's brows, and the pressure does alleviate. If only slightly. Enough to feed the mortal enough air to speak. Encroaching on the Dollmakers personal space in order to bring half exposed maws closer to those tantalising dark eyes.

"You talk too much for your own good."

[mishydraws]

I see some ppl are already speculating that the final episode of YR could maybe be a special extended episode and not to get anyone’s hopes up (me, lmao. I’m talking about me) but that wouldn’t be unprecedented. That’s exactly what they did for Sex Education.

Obviously it’s a different production, a different country etc.

But pls I beg give me more time with these characters and let me dream while I can 😭

[afniel]

Maaaaaaaaaaaan, come on.

(the post has ended up in the tags btw. I am not changing this and I need you to understand that it is just me talking to myself semi-publicly)