#i think i will simply perish

[samuraionyourmom]

Don't talk to me about the Flags rn. I'm going crazy. Currently chomping at the bit. Foaming at the mouth. Jumping off the walls. My boys.

[erlandious]

Someone needs to make a four-circle venn diagram that includes Hozier, Florence, Tamino, and The Oh Hellos

[nestavadavat]

Having I 💖 my wife hours

[temtamtom]

On the topic of Heta OCs, I'm finally getting around to exploring this idiot gooner Vatican (Feli's greatest opp)

(Design still not final!)

Please excuse the OC stuff recently, I just got through a major deadline so I'm indulging myself as a lil reward <3 Alternative version under the cut:

[the-way-astray]

you could theoretically read the series in the order 8.5, 9.5, 9 instead of 8.5, 9, 9.5 because books 9 and 9.5 take place parallel to each other but also sophie and keefe never interact between them so hypothetically there should be no difference (and no spoilers either way).

another thing you could theoretically do is alternate between reading books 9 and 9.5. a chapter here, a chapter there. it would be like reading a longer version of unlocked, with the povs alternating between sophie and keefe.

in fact, in theory, there could be a possibility of even less spoilers if you read it 8.5, 9.5, 9. for example, if vespera makes an appearance in unraveled, and you didn't know she would die yet, it could be a really cool way to see her last minute and have an extra layer about her before her death. whereas if vespera makes an appearance in unraveled and you already know she's going to die, it feels a little more empty. not completely meaningless, but like. kinda empty. like if vespera hints at a larger plan or something in unraveled and you didn't know she was going to die, you'd be super excited to see this plan shake out, but now that we know she's going to die something like that wouldn't hit as hard.

[bidokja]

I was joking a while back that the actor they have playing KDJ for the orv movie was too handsome for him and a friend who's read orv was like "KDJ is actually secretly attractive!!" And I just felt my soul leave my body right then

SIGHS...

Okay. Buckle in. I'm gonna finally actually address and explain and theorize about this whole...thing.

I'm not gonna cite any exact chapters cause it's like 11:30 and I've got an 8 hour drive in the morning but I'll at least make an approximate reference to where certain things are mentioned. Also, this post is just my personal interpretation for a good bit of it, but it's an interpretation I feel very solid about, so do with that what you will. Moving on to the meat of things:

There is one (1) instance in the web novel that I know of which describes specific features of Kim Dokja (especially ones other people notice). This takes place when members of KimCom are trying to make Kim Dokja presentable to give his speech at the Industrial Complex (after it's been plopped down on Earth). This is when they start really paying attention and focusing on Kim Dokja's appearance since they're putting makeup on him; I still don't think they can interpret his whole face, but they can accurately pick out and retain more features than usual. If I remember correctly they reference him having long eyelashes, smooth skin, and soft hair. These features can be viewed as (stereotypically) attractive.

Certain parts of the fandom have taken this scene and run with it at a very surface level, without realizing (or without acknowledging at the very least) that this scene is not about how Kim Dokja looks. This is, in part, due to not realizing or acknowledging why Kim Dokja's face is "censored" in the first place, and what that censoring actually means. I think it's also possible that some people are assuming the censorship works like a physical phenomena rather than an altered perception.

I'll address that last point first. The censorship of Kim Dokja's features is not something as simple as a physical phenomena. It's not a bar or scribble or mosaic over his face. If that were true it'd be very obvious to anyone looking at him that his face is hidden. But his face is not hidden to people. They can look at him and see a face. If they concentrate on his eyes, they can see where he's looking. They know when he's frowning or grinning. They see a face loud and clear. But what face are they seeing? Because it's not really his, whatever they're seeing.

No one quite agrees on what he really looks like. And if they try and think about what he looks like, they can't recall. Or if they do, it's vague, or different each time. We notice these little details throughout the series. Basically, Kim Dokja's face is cognitively obscured. Something - likely the Fourth Wall, though I can't recall if this is ever stated outright - is interfering with everyone's ability to perceive him properly. This culminated in him feeling off to others; and since they don't even realize this is happening, they surmise that he is "ugly."

Moving on to the other point about what the censorship means: To be blunt, the censorship of his face is an allegory for his disconnect from the "story" (aka: real life, and the real people at his side). The lifting - however slight - of this censorship represents him becoming more and more a part of the "story" (aka: less disconnected from the life he is living and the people at his side). The censorship's existence and lifting can represent other things - like dissociation or depersonalization or, if you want to get really meta, the fact that he is all of our faces at once - but that's how I'd sum up the main premise of it. (The Fourth Wall is a larger part of the dissociation allegory, but that's for another post).

So you see, them noticing his individual features isn't about the features. It's not about the features! It doesn't matter at all which features got listed. Because they could describe any features whatsoever and it would not change the entire point of the scene. Because the point isn't what he looks like. The point is that they can truly and clearly see these features. For the first time. They are seeing parts of him for the first time. Re-read that sentence multiple times, literally and metaphorically. What does it mean to see someone as they are?

This is an extremely significant turning point dressed up as a dress-up scene.

---

P.S. / Additionally, I'm of the opinion that Kim Dokja is not handsome, and he is not ugly. He is not pretty, and he is not ghastly. Not attractive, nor unattractive. Kim Dokja isn't any of these things. More importantly, Kim Dokja can't be any of these things. The entire point of Kim Dokja is that you cannot pick him out of a crowd; he is the crowd. He's a reader. He's the reader. Why does he need to be handsome? Why must he be pretty? Why is him being attractive necessary or relevant? He doesn't, he doesn't, it's not. He is someone deeply deeply loved and irreplaceable to those around him, and someone who cannot even begin to recognize or accept that unless it's through a love letter masquerading as a story he can read. He is the crowd, a reader, the reader. He's you, he's me. He's every single one of us.

[just-a-carrot]

i finally finished it... 💦 the tragically romantic dd2 genzy music video...💔

i'm incredibly a bit embarrassed at just how long this ended up taking me to make and how much effort and constant thought went into it. from practicing with the cam, to recording the countless hours of footage, to painstakingly cutting it up and organizing the clips, to then finally starting to edit it together (starting from the middle LKJDFAD), it has been a long endeavor but i regret none of it LOL i also now have like a gadzillion unused clips and various bits of footage

anyway... mayhap with this you'll come to understand the sheer depths of my pain and insanity...

i also added a little treat at the end. thank you for indulging me in this madness...🥺

(DO NOTE that it does contain spoilers for the entirety of the game, including the ending, though the spoiler parts only really start around the 4 minute mark; before that it's all just my camera "skills" lkdjalksfda)

[duskspring]

Let’s all take a moment to think about Cumulus…

…

…

…

Ok now my day is good :)

[corvidclub]

the loustat girlies who think that Louis only topped for the 80+ years he was away from Lestat because he was subconsciously saving his hole for his hubby... on the one hand: sure, believe whatever makes you happy sweetheart :) but on the other hand: GIRL. bffr with me rn... Louis was ready to bottom for a random british heterosexual after like what? a year? maybe? without dick. Do you think him saying "oh there's room" to Armand was completely innocuous with no double meaning whatsoever? A line which he said as a cruising park regular for months? I'm sorry but a platoon of frenchmen had already dived into that cervix before he even met Armand let alone before he reunited with Lestat...Louis was ready to be with Armand for eternity(!) to piss Lestat off you really think he wouldn't let another man fuck him? a.k.a the easiest and the most obvious way in the entire world to piss him off? hello??

[jcbbby]

what even was my life before Jamie’s Kit Marlowe….

I think you can see I’m going through a heavy Kit moment currently. I always am but rn it’s INSATIABLE 😭

[nexility-sims]

🌷

[ohhgingersnaps]

🫠 <- me, cancelling plans with new friends and waiting for responses in the group chat reassuring me that it's okay and nobody is mad

[that-vampire-loser]

The way I always forget that Kevin Day’s mom was the one that invented exy. Like, he’s got coaches kid syndrome already, but THIS. The poor Exites workers, just trying to do their jobs, when Kevin MymominventedexyandIknowmorethanyou Day walks in the store.

He’s a menace to society

[lanternlightss]

looking back at posts and its so fun seeing exactly which two characters in genshin i was hyperfixated on and that even after like three years it has not changed Once 😭

venti and nameless bard have me wrapped around their fingers istg

[loosingmoreletters]

slams hand down do it you know you want to do it,,, sugar daddy au and now its just awkward as fuck but they get to Deal with It. bonus points for people laughing at them in the background. i am your inner demon whispering that this is a good idea and you should absolutely write it (no pressure ofc!!! take your time and its fine if you want to!!!)

for ship names. yeah very sad. i havent settled on like. a combination of their names that sound appealing to me so im just. sitting there awkwardly in Yun Taeheon x Shin Junseo. simple but it works. ill bonk my brain for ideas later,, i have cut down on thigns i need to hand in tomorrow im procrastinating because the thing i need to do is so horribly boring

maybe the korean side of the fandom has something going on but that would require me to go on twitter and figure out what korean words to put in the search box and I'm already failing at "go on twitter".

sdkhldfkhg the inner demons are winning. now I'm kinda contemplating how this would even start, which made me realize we know fuck all about Shin Junseo's past??? We only knew that apparently he had a shitty job before he awakened and didn't have any friends and seemingly also has no family.

So like? Local man signs up on an app bc honestly at this point being a sugar baby would not be worse than another horrible shift at whatever minimum wage job he has to pay the bills?

And cool, he hits it off with Yun Taeheon, something something business man. It's a lot less hollywood-pretty-woman than he expected, more nice dinners with genuinely entertaining discussions, and sure getting laid is nice too, and then, well, the world goes to shit for a hot second and well, the contract written before runs out, isn't renewed and Shin Junseo has a moment between picking up a shitty job again and awakening where he comfortably lives on his savings while his,,, ex? well, no, ex would be implying they dated. boss is also not quite the term, his previous situationship, made himself a guild master.

whatever.

and then the world goes even more to shit and he drags corpses and the memories of a world annihilated out of a dungeon. He makes his plan, keeps his head down and then fucking Yun Taeheon is standing in front of him again.

[fritzes]

so someone posted a taylor fritz edit on instagram and taylor reposted it on his story…

I’ve got my taylor + california dreamin’ edit…

should I try it???