#it's a fun one! highly recommend

[augustjustice]

It's What's Inside!!!! is good!!!

It really is!!! I got the chance to watch it Friday, I've just had a crazy hectic weekend so couldn't respond until now. But I really, really liked it, and I'm so happy you did too! So relieved to have a good bodyswap flick that isn't afraid to do some cool things with the premise.

Some spoilery thoughts below the cut:

You mentioned this in your liveblogging of it, but I really liked the editing style here and how it drew attention to itself! The freneticness of it did a great job capturing both the imitation of social media they were at times going for and also some of the chaos of the premise as it went off the rails in the latter half. And I thought they did a great job depicting what anxiety can be like with some of the filmic techniques they used, which I know the director has spoken about wanting to tap into with this movie.

Some of those tricks especially worked well with the bodyswapping concept! I liked the moments when the camera peeled back the layers to reveal "who was inside." At the time when they didn't show Forbes, I thought they were just playing 4D chess with us, keeping who was who somewhat concealed. That worked really well looking back with the eventual Beatrice reveal at the end.

The way the film layered in roleplaying/desire to be someone else was deftly handled, I felt. I think it was smart to kind of anchor the movie in Shelby and Cyrus's relationship troubles with his continued fixation on Nikki being at the center of it. The entire friend group's dynamic being so messy with many of them clearly still romantically and sexually hung up on each other really heightened everything, and it also opened up some interesting questions about physical vs. romantic desire. Like, the fact that Cyrus was obsessed with Nikki regardless of "what was inside" (🥁) is...telling. I also thought it was fantastic to have a film acknowledge race as a complicated component of identity when it comes to bodyswapping! Gender is often played with in this trope, but that was the first time I had seen media try to tackle that element of things.

One thing I liked the most about the movie is that the events had real consequences. I've never seen a piece of media actually engage with the question of what would happen if someone else died while inside your body, so it was exciting to see that tackled and to have an ending without a neat resolution. It leaves you as a viewer to ponder their fates and what happens after this, which I really appreciated.

Also, brief shout out to the acting! Of course that's always pivotal in these movies, but the cast did a stellar job of telegraphing who was who even when those characters were trying to conceal their identities from each other.

Overall, fantastic movie! Definitely going into my rewatch list of bodyswapping films.

[fivefve]

Apartment 502 as a Netflix series @apt502-if

[joltrify]

experimentations ft. the Artpop queen herself

Silly little (not so little) unrelated HC I developed later under the cut

₊˚ ‿︵‿︵‿︵୨୧ · · ♡ · · ୨୧‿︵‿︵‿︵ ˚₊

🎀- HC that EVE's most normal hobby - when not occupied with other things - is repainting dolls 🎀- Like in a blue moon you can catch her at the hobby lobby in mom jeans and a cardigan just looking for materials

★- In her down time (which is a bit rare these days) Nadia'll pick those ball-jointed Barbie/Bratz/MH dolls and give them a complete makeover ☆- While she's making them she's fervently thinking 'I will love you in a way that no one else EVER has' and she treats them all that way ★- She'll repaint them in the most unconventional ways possible but they're still gorgeous; a perfect reflection of her studio artwork on a body that isn't her own ☆- Sometimes if she's low on fabrics, instead of making a full-sized mockup of her exhibition fits she'll use her dolls to test the outfit design and make a mini version of the fit with small pieces of the final material ★- She's got this HUGE shelf on her pad that's got these fashion icon dolls displayed with their name and inspiration on a little plaque ☆- Whenever something significant happens and she doesn't want to paint, she'll hold onto the feeling, good or bad, and jot down an idea for a new doll's look ★- and she DOES truly love each of them - though she may have had to learn to love one in particular

🎀- She picked up the hobby in college (before she met Zuke) but didn't really think anything of it 🌸- It was just a means to practice different makeup looks and pencil techniques without sculpting something - and it was fun! She liked having a cute little gal at the end of the process 🎀- When she came up with the idea of using the dolls as models, she created a doll of herself but made the decision to make its skin completely white 🌸- When Nadia met Zuke, she sort of put the hobby aside to focus on her other art mediums, but she looked at the doll of herself and felt comfortable enough to repaint the right side pink (and she laughed a bit to herself looking at the final result, because it looked... Cute! Just like her other gorgeous dolls...) 🎀- After Rapturica, she didn't feel the need to create a doll based on her feelings as she didn't feel as hurt as she expected, but she did find it really, REALLY hard to look at the doll of herself, so she hid it away... 🎀- she picked up repainting again later but went in HARD - they began to look more artsy and alien, just like her other art pieces 🌸- After graduating she didn't really have time to repaint dolls and focused on creating other arts/music again, only occasionally using them to test outfits (but never the one of herself) 🎀- After the events of NSR though, she picked it up again as a form of self-care. It's something she doesn't have to create for the public eye, and she's rekindled the joy of creating a strange little gal and loving them despite their bizarre quirks. 🌸- ... I think she feels a bit more comfortable looking at the doll of herself now, too.

★- She's probably still got doll repaint videos up on her channel from her college days, hehe. ☆- (She's debating whether or not to make a mini exhibition about the concept of dolls.* Likely not, as she doesn't want to taint the tranquility of the act, but she still likes the idea. It's better to not mix work art with home art, anyway.) (* (How they can reflect their caretaker, they exhibit both confidence and vulnerability, they can be broken and discarded but repaired, they're still images that can be moved in a 3d space however you desire, they rely on a person to actually be 'real' ykyk that kind of thing. the symbolism of dolls.)

The doodle I made in the 3rd picture (above the cut) is inspired by those really pretty doll repaints... I think that that look in particular is one that she tested on a doll first... pre-ugly cry, that is.

Thanks for reading my very silly idea... decorated the bullets with Bows and stars because I felt like it, haha. Have a lovely day~🌸

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

Cosplay of the fox and the rabbit from chinese donghua 中国奇谭 Yao - Chinese Folktales (cr 木有东南枝，Strate九彧）

[larabar]

putting up my best art block defense *draws a guy* *draws a guy* *draws

[sanji-outfit-tourney]

Congratulations to Strong World Outfit 1 for being Sanji's ugliest outfit! 🎉🎉

This mini tournament was filled with close battles, but Strong World indeed proved to be the strongest (of ugliness)! 👏👏

Next up on the scheduled Sanji shenanigans is the full-length Best Colour Spread Outfit tournament! I'm hoping to start this one on Monday (Nov. 18th), buuut I haven't actually started gathering the contestants yet, so we'll see! I'll keep you guys posted on any schedule changes!

A huge thank you to everyone for making these bonus rounds such a success! Stay tuned for more outfit nonsense!

[khaopybara]

FirstKhaotung having an enemies to friends to soulmates relationship is one of my favorite things about them.

Translation credits: ✦✦

[crualex-de-vil]

V doesn't stand a chance against those bedroom eyes 😍

[affectionatecorpse]

Okay so I see some people are debating what the monster from Still Wakes the Deep is. I'm inspired by the support from my Death Angel post, so I'm gonna try giving an analysis. Now science is not my strong suit, I'm much better at zoology, but here we go.

Of course, spoilers ahead!

So, the entity comes to light in act one. While Caz is being yelled at by his power drunk boss, Rennick, a worker going by the name Gibbo calls up to say there's an issue with the drill, something highlighted earlier by another worker. Rennick orders the drilling anyway, and thus begins the nightmare, as the drill seems to unearth and awaken a destructive parasite out for revenge. But I don't think that's as deep as it goes, pun intended.

Let's say, the creature is a parasite. A form of near sentient bacteria, though take that description with a grain of salt, I'm no scientist. Parasites simply cannot live on their own. That's an objective fact. They need a host. They exist within another for survival and breeding purposes, and multiply and spread through the body of another.

Parasites, bacteria and even fungi can live underground for years, and have been discovered to do so. Ancient lifeforms have been discovered just under the surface of earth, let alone deep underneath the ground and in the bottom of our oceans, one of the most complex and diverse biomes that our current science has barely scratched the surface of. It's highly likely this creature is a self replicating bacteria or parasite that was unearthed by the drill, and took up new hosts to survive in this change of environment.

But not every host worked. You can see half transformed, mutilated bodies everywhere, and some that haven't even changed at all. These bodies could not support the parasite and shortly died.

However, a few select hosts DID end up surviving; Gibbo, Muir, Rennick, Addair and Trots. It's unclear what sets these people apart from the others, and I don't know enough about this topic to claim an answer. But I certainly do think these folks died soon into the transformation, and are not fully conscious in the body. They frequently repeat terms and phrases, and never say anything you might expect from an entity possessing them, implying it's borrowing words and sentences that have been said by the host before, in other circumstances.

The entity plays with Caz's memories and definitely the others' too, though not all of them good. It wouldn't be a surprise to realise that's where it's getting information about it's host, as it reads the memories inside the brain to learn faces, names, and even the host's personality. Which makes me wonder, does it even realise what it looks like? Does the creature itself actually realise it's a parasite? Or does it completely and fully believe it is the person it's connected itself to? It almost downloads their personality and tries to pretend like everything is completely normal.

Let's talk about arguably the best monster (in my opinion), Muir. Muir moves about the area he frequently worked as what I assume was an engineer. He roams the familiar ground, almost unsure of why he's by himself. He often calls out to his coworkers, wondering out loud why they're treating him like he's different. Sure, this could be the real Muir's consciousness slipping in and out of the seams, but it's highly unlikely he would still be alive. Much like the zombie fungus, as it's often called, the host is not alive when the fungus is controlling it, and is merely a puppet. If the spiders it was corrupting could talk, I daresay, they'd be acting like them. Taking their place in the world, even if they don't realise it.

But every animal needs to eat. And eventually, that body is going to run out of tasty, tasty neurons. Like I said earlier, a parasite needs to spread. It'll breed, then spread to another to keep it's species alive. By infiltrating a 'pack' of animals, it will take anything to spread to the others. Which is exactly what the parasite does whenever it sees another human. Either that, or it will consume them, theoretically to feed the host so it stays alive, while keeping those tasty, tasty neurons for itself. You can almost see this process with Innes, as the elevator ascends without him, and you just faintly see Muir doing something in the distance. Likely consuming him for nutrients, as he was not connected to the parasite yet.

Next, there's Addair.

Addair, much like Muir, patrols familiar ground. Even though Addair himself wasn't even in that area when the drill struck. Now Muir was actively in that familiar space in the beginning, and it's safe to assume that's his place of transformation. But Addair was eating in the cafeteria when the incident happened, not deep down in the engine. Did he go down when the impact happened, while Caz was unconscious? Maybe. But the lights were fine then, and the engine wasn't the problem, so he didn't need a reason to. Plus, he doesn't seem like the type to be work dedicated, more inconvenience dedicated. Considering what I said about the parasite (badly) taking their place in society, did it go to his place of work after detecting that as his 'natural environment', per se?

Plus, unlike Muir, who greets the situation with quotes of confusion, fear and anxiety, Addair is instantly aggressive. Even an asshole like Addair is likely to panic if conscious in this situation, so the nervousness was Gibbo and Muir exclusive. But Addair and Rennick become immediately angry upon seeing Caz, as they actively disliked him in life, and so the parasite processes him as a foe to it's host. I thought that was neat.

Now another take I have admittedly heard from several other people, but I thought was worth mentioning. The monsters are incredibly similar to sea creatures. Which means this underwater bacteria was possibly leaking out already, and transforming our animals, not enough to completely corrupt them, but enough to twist their bodies. Think of the appearances of deep, deep sea creatures, such as the anglerfish. Isn't it possible this parasite was responsible for their uncanny appearance, in this universe? Muir especially looks like a spider crab, or perhaps even a bigfin squid.

Which again, is a deep sea creature. Rennick also reminds me of a blobfish once removed from the pressure of the deep sea. Addair seems very jellyfish-like, but may be something else very... tick-like. And even Trots gives me major merfolk vibes, with how untouched his torso is in comparison to his lower half.

This parasite could have been feeding off the neurons and breeding through our very ecosystem as the ground slowly gave away above it. The drill unearthing the source likely gave it a burst of control as so much energy was released at once, hence why it was so fast to literally spiral out of control.

But Scotland, by all means, is not the only place in the world connected to the ocean. Sure, they destroyed this batch, but other forms of this parasite live on elsewhere on earth. And the explosion may not have even destroyed it. It definitely would've destroyed the host bodies, yes, but certain bacterias can survive impressive damage, even heat hot enough to burn off human flesh. We'd best hope this is not one of those bacterias.

I didn't really get as far with this observation as I did with other horror studies, but I had fun nonetheless! Like I said, I'm really better with zoology (hence the sudden enthusiasm when I started on sea creatures), but I loved Still Wakes the Deep SO much that I just wanted to write down my thoughts. If you have any other theories, feel free to add them!

Also if I used your pictures/gifs and you would like me to add credit, I am so so sorry, I will absolutely add that as soon as you say so, I just got most of these off Google and couldn't find most the original sources. So yeah if you'd like me to add your name and mention, or you want me to remove it in general, feel free to just say and I'll add it, I don't bite I promise. Well... I won't bite YOU.

Sorry sorry, had to make a zombie reference--

[lazybakerart]

kidnap your man's $12,000 guitar, leave him a ransom note written in newspaper clippings, send him polaroids of the guitar as proof of life, mail him parts of the guitar as a threat, describe torturing the guitar by slowly tightening its strings, and then only give the guitar back after your man kidnaps your cancer patient in retaliation - the How to Get What You Want from Your Terrible Dumpster Fire Boyfriend guide by Doctor James Wilson

[coloriza]

"Sakura had never felt so validated in her love until she met a man made better by her burning."

The Void Between Fireflies by @renaerys

[vlasdygoth]

going ham with these crayolas recently

[unjustgalaxy]

the post abt writing at 4 am was foreshadowing, therefore: troy centric fic anyone?? lintroller crumbs?? maybe

just wanted to write blink and runt for once :))

[good-beans]

I've been falling in love with Yotsuba&! and eventually I'll post something sweet, but for now have a collection of silly reactions I've been saving lmao

(None of them are big smiles because you can just open any page of the manga for that :'))

[cherrycokedup]

sigh. thinking about willspero college au again. kill me 😞

[dailycupofcreativitea]

Drawings from around Japan :)