#ive also talked about them which is against the rules too

[lucysgraybird]

making myself irrationally anxious about internships

[ancientbygone]

simulacra 3 [take me back to eden]

[sundowning] [tpwbyt]

Sleep's mimic forms of the vessels during the time period of TMBTE, because i can't be normal and start a series from the beginning and not the end.

more info + design breakdowns under the cut:

[obligatory "when talking about the vessels, i'm talking about characters" disclaimer]

background info on the whole idea:

Sleep as a being is shapeless in my mind; more of a concept than a creature. it can manifest as sort of an absence of light in any shape to others, usually to appeal to feeling/emotion. the only "rule" for that is that whatever Sleep tries to appear as cannot look more or less innocent/powerful than Sleep actually is, which usually manifests in two things: the size being different from the thing/person it's imitating, scaled according to power, and/or added features, usually in some way threatening or regal.

one of Sleep's more consistent forms it takes throughout interacting with Vessel is mimicking him, partially to create an illusion of the two being more similar than they actually are and partially because Sleep used to exist as Vessel's shadow when they'd just met. the visual itself has changed through time (you can see what it was like during Sundowning in my Higher artwork), and during TMBTE that visual is pretty much the titular song's character with the most minor tweaks (which is why i didn't draw it separately).

all that made me think about the idea of Sleep mimicking the other vessels just to fuck with Vessel further (to be clear, i am a strong believer that Sleep only interacts with Vessel in any way). so now here are the designs of those mimics during the events of TMBTE, utilizing the album's song characters much like the Vessel mimic. because again, i have to start a series from the end, i guess.

"ii"/ii mimic (song character used: AYROK)

the main idea driving the design of "ii" is the real ii's goal to keep Vessel more or less safe by being by his side in worshipping Sleep, which is the reason he'd decided to become the second vessel in the first place. the choice of AYROK as the character to use in this design is obvious. one of the ideas that stem from that is ii's duty/desire to keep his face hidden for Vessel's sake; only his hands are visible & detailed because that's the only part of him Vessel remembers before either of them became vessels of Sleep and the only part ii has really shown after that. another is ii's timidity in telling Vessel to go against Sleep's will because he fears that no matter how bad it may be, it'll be much worse if Vessel doesn't follow it. that part comes through in the pose - shyly holding his hands together as if they're tied.

"iii"/iii mimic (song character used: Aqua Regia)

the song character inspo being Aqua Regia is mostly because of the calmer nature of the song and the dynamic duo it makes with Vore, less so the themes of the lyrics. also its visual design. iii mimic's design themes are iii's adoration/borderline obsession with Vessel (wearing Vessel's jewelry and having elements of his robe in his shirt + his own face/mask slowly melting off) and his enagement with worship as an act/aesthetic rather than something more serious (the overabundance of jewelry and accessories; the extra arms; the body language; the cuffs around his arms and legs being decorative and not actually restricting). also the rings on his fingers make a checkered pattern.

"iv"/iv mimic (song character used: Vore)

the use of Vore for "iv" is obvious too. song wouldn't be the same without his real life self. the design really just aims to combine iv with the Vore character, but there are two big things here. the simplest one is anger issues, which is why he's So Goddamn Spiky and why his jacket looks like scarred skin rather than painted & customized. the anger mostly shows up in the body language: most of the time "iv" just stares unblinkingly with pure palpable ire in the two glowing dots for eyes, and when he does move it's very stiff and snappy and barely controlled. the other thing is that, simply speaking, the real iv got into this whole mess without knowing the full extent of it and now he's in too deep and kinda losing himself. in the design it's expressed through the human features gradually turning into bug-like, such as the hoodie fading into a segmented millipede-like body and the fucked up mantis hands, and the gold of the original iv's mask melting over the face with the horns being part of it. the spikes protrude from him in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish between jacket decorations and actual parts of his body, but the spines are definitely from his body & allow me to live the dream of iv with a mohawk LMAO

anyway have fun with these go nuts i'll make similar sheets & posts for Sundowning and TPWBYT eventually

[phampires]

i said a while ago i wanted to read dan and phil's astrology charts, so here is Dan's!

warning it is Long

disclaimer: ive studied astrology for 10 years and this is just what i read and interpret his chart as. astrology is fun and this is not to be taken seriously....this is all my interpretation and opinion!

Dan's big three: Gemini sun, Gemini moon, Cancer rising.

this truly is an individual quick to love and hate. he is reluctantly ruled by emotions, but also with swift wit, making him seem impulsive with his words. he needs connection above all else.

his emotions are erratic and quick, he may be moody or move on either too quickly, or never. he is hard to pin down emotionally, because his emotions rule him, than the other way around. he is quick witted, funny, anxious, and intellectual. has a hard time verbalizing emotions, especially having his sun, moon, and mercury in the 12th house, which internalizes everything. he needs an outlet for those emotions because it's all zooming around in his head CONSTANTLY, his mind never quiets. may like to write his feelings, rather than speak them

he uses humor to cover his emotions up, and it might be hard to get closer to him unless he lets down that barrier.

cancer rising is like a big uncovered nerve....very sensitive. they go through life sensitively and are in tune with others around them, which can exhaust them. they are always trying to make sure everyone is happy and sometimes neglect that for themselves. they also are known for having a baby face! they are warm and protective of others, and loyalty means everything to them.

his Venus and Mars in Leo....... Loves attention. He fucking craves it. he is also quick and impulsive with emotions but feels a deep sense of pride. he gets embarrassed easily and nothing makes him angrier than feeling embarrassed or like his character/pride is being attacked. he is fiercely loyal and is definitely the jealous type. will stand up for his loved ones. his love language may be words of affirmation/compliments!

the Gemini mixed with the Leo...he loves to talk. he is very loud lol. an energetic warrior ;) but only behind closed doors, because he wants to control the image he portrays to others intensely. he's all about image, he's very calculated when it comes to that. he wants people to only see what he wants them to see, he loves to put on a show. a big entertainer.

his second house is with his mars, Venus, and Jupiter. the second is the house of material possessions, ruled by Taurus (Venus). he loves fashion, money, and it's a core need for him to be able to buy whatever he wants. he has an innate eye for design. he is particular about this, and can seem controlling over these things. Jupiter expands so he has luck in this area, of beauty, money, and material possessions, and security through these things is a big thing for him.

this cheeky fucker....Has Uranus and Neptune in the 7th house. wherever Uranus is, it's unconventional and rebellious. where Neptune is, it's naive and idealistic. the 7th house is relationships.... Pointing to the fact that he has an ambiguous relationship with someone who people speculate about because it confuses them 👀 he hates to be tied down and can be rebellious against traditional relationships. mix this with the idealistic, hopelessly romantic Neptune, and you have a big confusing feeling inside you where the two wolves are always fighting. he wants a soulmate and believes deeply in love, but hates that part of him and thinks it's corny and useless.

his 7th is also in Capricorn, which is hilarious because it is typical for this placement to seek older partners (lol), and to seek someone with Capricorn qualities, who seems established, controlled, and mature. this also indicates luck in business partnerships. he sees relationships as hard work, dedication, and responsibility.

he has Pluto in the 5th house, and pluto is the death and rebirth of that area. the 5th house is hobbies, games, romance/dating, sports, creativity, etc. he has crashed and burned in this area multiple times, and these are areas of intense passion for him...he obsesses over romance, he comes across intense. he longs for that connection. his creativity is hard for him to control, creative blocks may be intense, but he has so many ideas all the time and will stop at nothing to bring them to fruition. also indicates someone who has many talents in many areas, and has a hard time choosing just one.

overarching themes of his chart: he craves romance and connection, he can be a bit naive in that area, but he hates tradition and commitment and struggles a lot with those two parts of himself. he is attracted to powerful, strong, and caring types. he is jealous and protective and craves loyalty, as he himself is loyal. he is loud and creative and fun, and he controls his image well. he holds a lot of himself inside and his inner mind is always moving and growing. he is witty and uses humor to connect but also to shield. he is intense and serious, but hides that behind an entertaining exterior.

[you-and-youth]

a lot of people dont understand cameron. the character they hate is just a warped, entirely inacurate caricature. practically someone they made up. and, i think its because a lot of people are paying no attention to him until after neil dies (and then make no effort to understand him).

because the things ive seen said about him by people who hate him are not just surface level, but truly, blatantly wrong. like, "goes against the entire reason hes in the movie in the first place and his entire character to an alarming degree that makes me question if you even watched the movie" kind of wrong. I mean, hell, even some people who do like him.

bottom line is, cameron doesnt actually agree with the administration on everything. he isnt following the rules because he wants to. hes afraid. he is so so deathly afraid of what will happen if he is caught breaking those rules. he does actually enjoy being in the dead poets society (very obviously so if you are actually paying like any attention to him at all). hes charlies antithesis, on the point of fear especially. that is his reason for being in the movie. he is a cautionary tale against being so afraid to step out, someone who couldnt take a risk, be himself, who couldnt overcome his fear. thats what his purpose is. its the opposite to charlies, who is to warn against having absolutely no fear of such consequences.

when trying to slot cameron into a villain role, people seem to be talking about another character all together. about some guy who just hates everything and wants everyone to suffer for Reasons. because they dont like him, dont understand him, and dont care to.

which, really sucks, honestly. i think a lot of the time, discussion of this movie becomes black and white, nuance and reason and consideration kind of just... absent. in favour of this surface level lense that makes it easier to digest. especially in regards to cameron.

his motivations are fundamentally different than is being stated here. he is afraid but he doesnt want to hurt people and wants to be like the others. he wants to sieze the day. he wants to take keatings lesson to heart. but he cant. hes terrified and frankly not really let in. the poets treat him pretty badly, even during the society meetings. for everyone else, the dead poets society offers a place to bloom, to be themselves. but cameron doesnt get that.

but he tries. he is so patient. he is trying to fit in and do things the way the poets want him to, do things all the ways everyone (in the society and out of it) is demanding he do them and thats not sustainable. he was going to break eventually and it came when neil died and no one told him, or when he was called into nolans office and asked to make a decision where either option would ruin his life while he was already grieving.

even then, in spite of it all, he is still trying to save them from getting expelled (why else would he go to the meeting afterwards? and specifically try and give them advice on how not to get kicked out?).

he is trying. he is tearing himself to pieces trying to be what everyone wants. to be a good obedient srudent for nolan (and presumably his parents) but also be the person the poets want him to be - when really, he isnt either. hes just cameron. but thats not good enough for anyone, or at least, if it is, no one lets him know that.

this misinterpretation of cameron isnt even surface-level, its just baseless.

edit: hope this didnt come off as too aggresive or anything? i tend to sound that way so, premsptive apologies

[necroromantics]

Regarding being "cancelled"

Im not gonna address this further unless anyone needs clarification or something cuz its just drama with random ass kids who I'm not interested in interacting with

Some people dug up a fuck ton of old screenshots of shit I said in my server a year ago. Not gonna deny saying any of that, cuz I did say it, and I've said worse, and if you've talked to me at all I am always very open about this stuff.

In the screenshots I made jokes about disabled people and said I don't care if someone is a Nazi, because at the time my server had like no rules, everything was free reign (which is now changed). This is because I did not care if someone was disabled or a Nazi. It kinda comes hand in hand with ASPD, not caring unless it directly effects you. This does not mean I condone or support the things I joked about*

If you don't know what ASPD is, it's antisocial personality disorder, its characterized by "disregard for peoples rights and feelings". The reason I was even diagnosed in the first place was because I fit the criteria of crossing moral boundaries, disregarding peoples feelings, and not fitting into social norms. I was VERY bad with that in the past, especially a year ago when I was 18 years old, very deep in drug addiction, and didn't have the support system I have now.

If you want to judge me based on my past mistakes and actions, I can't control you. I don't expect anyone to like me, but I do care to get my side out too. I post here because I have fun, not because I care what people think. And if you judge me from shit I said as a drug addicted horribly mentally ill 18 yr old, then that isn't my problem.

Love the label, hate the symptoms yeah?

I don't like apologizing for things I'm not actually sorry for so this isn't an apology. I know I've said a lot of jarring and rude and fucked up things in the past, but if you know me at all then you know it never came from a place of hatred. To me, as someone with ASPD, its about proving that things like societal rules and norms aren't going to be another thing that controls you, so you just ignore them completely. This is what makes it a disorder. Cuz it's irrational and dysfunctional and causes problems like this

Also they vaguely mentioned me abusing someone who's borderline which is ??? because all the relationships with borderlines Ive been in had been very unhealthy on both sides. My mom has BPD so I know how to help those with BPD and Ive always tried my best to cater to BPDers symptoms and issues, even in the relationships where their condition got too much for me.

But yeah, I made mistakes in the past, and I'm not that person anymore, or at least I try hard not to be. I've been sober for almost a year, I have amazing friends and a good support system, I'm on medication for my bipolar disorder. Judge me from the past, but anyone who talks to me now knows that I work very hard to get over those mindsets and habits. To me, thats all that matters.

Edit: Not blaming my disorder, its just easier to explain. I'm taking full blame for what I said in the past, and I acknowledge that it was morally wrong. I said what I said. These people have been absolutely hellbent on being on my ass for months now when all I want to do is just chill out, get better, and live life. Theyre gonna keep complaining about everything I do, and I don't care to make any more edits, just wanted to clarify that Im not making excuses. Also I don't support Nazi's, I just made jokes about it. Anyone who knows me knows Im very against that shit

(I dont mean to sound callous or whatever, I just woke up to this and wanted to quickly clear shit up before it all blows out of proportion)

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ofmd s2e4 rewatch where i pause to jot down my thoughts and other random shit

it's been a busy week since last thursday and shit's only gonna get busier for me after tomorrow so hopefully i can get through these two episodes out before i go to bed lol!!! anyway once again these posts are just me rambling so i can process the insane amount of information in these episodes and if u want to read them too that's fine.

s2e1, s2e2, s2e3, s2e4, s2e5, s2e6, s2e7, s2e8

rip everyone who wanted homoerotic sword fighting in the gentebeard reunion. have a headbutt as a consolation prize.

obsessed with stede holding raw room-temperature meat against his bruised face bc that's not even a little bit how that works. i love this show.

ok so jim saying "he'll probably get around to killing you after he's rested" in response to stede saying ed needs to regain his strength actually gives some pretty good context to why they want ed of the ship so bad. bc they DID fully try to kill ed and now he's here and alive and like. if i were jim i would be pretty worried abt ed holding a grudge abt that.

wont lie stede being like "we dont just banish people, that's not us!" makes me thinkg abt how they fully banished izzy from the ship in e6. i mean technically izzy banished himself on accident but. lol.

also izzy's absence in this scene indicating he is not yet considered part of the entire crew

roach: i need that steak back, it's dinner stede: (pulling the steak away) oh, right fang: maybe let's put the banishment to a vote? stede: (steak back on his face, apparently having forgotten he was literally just about to give the meat to roach) aw do we have to :(

ed chained to the ship is doing. a lot for me. i wont lie.

buttons saying he's been to the gravy basket a few times... how many times has this man almost died??????

it is deeply funny to me that they edit the split second flashback of the drowning and mermaid hallucination to look all creepy as if that whole scene wasn't set to an incredibly sappy 80's love song (said with immense affection)

OBSESSED with stede trying to be like. encouraging to izzy. and being like "he cant hear you he's got no head" about izzy yelling at the ruined figurehead. this fucking dork.

so ive seen ppl talking abt how the crew's in a deadlock abt banishing ed and which ppl they think were pro-banishment and which were against, but the scenes with the crew make it look like everyone's voting for ed to get kicked out. so tbh i think like either of the following interpretations are pretty valid: the crew is split 50/50 on if they should banish ed OR the crew 100% wants to banish ed and stede was gonna try and leverage izzy's vote to try and get more ppl to change their mind. doesnt rlly matter either way tho

also the fact that izzy was the one to keep ed's body is. interesting. the others must've known abt it and helped izzy hide the body in the secret room. but izzy being the one to be like "no we're not throwing him overboard" is. something. no conclusions abt this atm im just rotating this fact in my brain.

i also just have a lot of thoughts abt the mutiny and the fact that like, jim's a trained assassin and the others are also pretty experienced killers and they probably knew they hadn't completely finished the job. and there was plenty of opportunity for them to do something about that. but instead they hid his body and waited for ed to succumb to his injuries. it feels kinda like ed's "technically i outsource the big job" rule. idk. thoughtssss.

frenchie in this scene is so funny bc he seems both actually apologetic abt kicking ed off the ship but also very relieved/vindicated to see him go.

didnt realize olu almost said smthng to ed lol i thought ed was just saying "fuck you" to him for no reason ghfjkghjkfh

"first time i've ever been on this side of a walk of shame" wee john i have so many questions. how many times have you been banished from a ship.

obsessed with archie just being like "way to make this awkward brah." her shitty boss put her life at risk in an attempt to make her and her coworkers kill him in a weird roundabout suicide attempt and her summary of the situation is "well, this is awkward :/"

"shitty sailing with you" sick burn, jim

"you're making it really hard to look up to you, man" LOVE how black pete is still a blackbeard stan. despite everything.

just ONCE i want someone to appreciate roach's sandwiches :(

"dont you want your sammy" STEDE I WOULD DIE FOR YOU

also i disagree with the subtitles here im like 99% sure says "you're no fuckin mermaid" not "you're not a fuckin mermaid" but that's just me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

stede looks SO sad abt not being a mermaid

love how everyone in this episode just sort of nods and is like "yeah okay" every time buttons tells them he's turning into a bird

altho with stede in this scene specifically im convinced that he's just jumping at the chance to follow ed to the island. he was absolutely gonna come up with some shitty excuse to go ashore anyway but it's nice of buttons to give him plausible deniability

i love how much ed hates nature

why do the subtitles say "gyp-" this has been bothering me all week. the line is "like a drifter"

i also love ed's line delivery of "a wolf?"

anyway dumb posts abt the spider tattoo backstory: 1, 2, 3

i love to see ed getting hugs... wish i could give him a hug :(

ok also buttons talking abt the gravy basket made me think ed needed like some sort of spell or smthng to snap out of it but instead it just kinda wore off by the end of the episode (maybe, depends on how you read the whole buttons turning into a bird scene). this is very funny to me for some reason

anne rubbing the cup she's holding against her tit. queen.

stede bonnet idiot dumbfuck moments

i LOVE anne's line delivery of "eddie motherfuckin teeeeach" like yeah that's cj's girl alright. or was cj's girl. who knows.

SECRET HANDSHAKE im cryinggggg. i love them.

stede's voice sounds so weird when he says "i wasn't looking for you" and that's because he's fucking lying through his teeth

LOVE how anne and mary look at each other after the "shipmates" "former" interaction like they are immediately on the same wavelength. and that wavelength is fucking with ed and his ex. they sniffed out a messy relationship dynamic and were like "oh hell yeah we need more of this in our lives"

ed is SO bitchy this whole scene i fucking love it. ed's face when he says "him?" fdhjksgfjhdgkj

ed: whatever 🙄 anne: whatever? 👀 mary: whatever! 😈

wee john getting more goth is so good

drunk izzy rambling at the ship's figurehead is so funny to me tho i miss drunk izzy

ed's crew lady macbeth "out damned spot" moments

i like how there's a goat in the background of this scene in anne and mary's house and it is unexplained and also never seen again.

ed's face after stede says "that's romance" is soooo good this bitch is so pissed. like oh would you have met me at the docs if i peeled the guard's face off instead of just paying him off? is that what fuckin does it for you???? not that it matters bc i dont care. but. cunt.

yeah im just focusing in on all of ed's faces in this scene. "quite the shift going from wearing people's faces to antique collectors" gets ed to freeze in the middle of bringing his drink up to his lips and just kinda stare off into the distance.

"how did you meet" has ed kind of frowning for a split second before stede starts answering and then he rolls his eyes very dramatically and sighs deeply

ed immediately being like "actually i was gonna kill him myself!" trying to undermine stede's meet-cute story. also anne and mary nodding along in complete unison bc this is just normal pirate conversation to them.

~~~

also as someone who has been team "no ed was dead serious abt the plan to steal stede's identity" this was very vindicating for me. it's a bad plan and it doesn't make any sense but logistics literally dont matter in this show. what matters is giving this story the "falling for the mark" trope makes ed's character arc in season 1 that much tastier!!!!

ed and stede going back and forth telling their story i cant fucking wait until theyre happily together telling this story and instead of ed trying to downplay it and ruin the meet-cute-iness of it they're just building on each other and being sappy and adorable

"more like i relented" one of the biggest lies i've ever heard this man say fjhkgjkfdhk

"until he completely boned it" SAY IT. FUCKING SAY IT. SOOOOO TRUE ED.

auauhghgh the beard bit......... crying

THE!!!!! QUIETEST LITTLE "thank you" OF ALL TIME. TIED MAYBE WITH ED SAYING "thank you" AFTER "i think you're very sophisticated" IN 1.05

i dont blame stede for trying to get ed to open up right after that bc that was the first bone ed's thrown stede's way since he woke up. unfortunately ed is not in the mood to talk abt his near-death experience and mermaid hallucination sequence.

LOVE anne's little gesture when she says "rabbit" and the little hip cocking

stede being like "uhhhh we could leave" during the knifeplay exhibitionism moment

i giggle every time at the way the crew is instantly like "fuck closing our eyes we're doing any fucking surprises"

ngl idgw the crew yelled abt the piñata reveal. but ok

loooove stede's half of the crew just blowing past all the screaming and tension from ed's half. jim screams "STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!!" abt the blindfold and roach is like "you won't want to stay the fuck away from this caaaake!" like roach fdhsjfgdhfjkghkj read the room?????

i love how much stede just. completely misses all of annie's flirting

ed coughing during the blunt session i love himmmmm

ok but ed's trying to be like "im totally over stede i dont even like him" and then ed reminiscing fondly with a distant smile abt the 1.06 stabbing scene

"and that was the... second time you left your wife?" underrated line

love how annie's been all quiet and seductive and then when she goes to make her move she's just like "WOUND THIS" and aggressively sits in stede's lap

also ok. "they're gonna be so jealous" is that annie talking abt ed and mary or is that annie using they/them pronouns for mary.

BUTTONS JUMPSCARE

also i love how they have that one medusa painting just. in their kitchen. im obsessed with the interior decor of this lesbian antique store that annie and mary live in

the way she's so touched by the poisoning attempt hjfgfjksghskjhgjkh

buttons being like "aahhhhhh do i give her... this bowl......????" fhjkghkfsjhk

"yeah, babe" TEALORANGES WIN

im honestly sad izzy's pathetic wet beast moment only really went for like three tiny scenes in one episode bc this shit was so funny to me. crawling away saying "you're born alone you die alone" over and over again. sir what are you even doing.

god buttons in this episode is so fucking funny bc i keep forgetting he's there. also why is he even there. like was he even invited to dinner or did he just sit down and annie and mary were like "oh ok i uh. guess we'll go make another plate??"

ed's face after buttons says the bit abt "i can tell this rabbit was intelligent" is soooo funny why is he so fucking pissed fdhsjkgyjdfkghjk

NO WAIT HE'S PISSED BC THAT WAS HIS FRIEND. THAT WAS HIS FRIEND THE WOLF HE WAS TELLING HIS SECRETS. NOW IM KINDA SAD :(:(:(

stede talking abt the sea when what he's actually talking abt is ed part 2 electric boogaloo

ed very calmly. standing up. and smashing the chair. im obsessed with him.

stede bonnet stupid dumbass moments

IMPROMPTU BLANKET FORT TIME

ed's voice is so quiet at the start of this scene he's not even yelling at stede until stede says "it's not fair" ohhhhhh my babygirl is so fucking sad........

"you ditching me without a note or anything" ed's literacy confirmed

"expecting me to just melt back into your arms" eddie my man. stede has not given literally any indication that he expected this at all. you are telling on yourself fhdjskghfkjshd

this scene is so fucking good i barely have anything to say abt it. just. u can rlly tell david jenkins wrote this ep himself lolll

"i was all in, mate. i was all in." IM SOBBING

oh nooooo i forgot that ed's line delivery of "im sorry my horrible naked chin disgusts you so much" isnt actually as sarcastic as the words itself make it seem. like it feels like ed wanted to say that all angrily and bitter but instead he just sounds sadddddd

ok ok but the way stede says "i love your chin naked or otherwise" and then after a pause (during which ed is keeping INCREDIBLY still bc u know otherwise he's just gonna burst into tearssss) stede whispers "ed" and ed is immediately like "don't" and then. stede going in for the "i love you" but like the way he's so slow with it?? he's literally like "i. love." and idk if it's bc he's trying to make this as clear as possible or if he's giving ed enough time to cut him off if he doesn't want to hear it

and ed DOES he DOES cut him off with "you don't get to say that to me" and he like. keeps glancing at stede out of the corner of his eye but not quite looking at him directly bc he knowwwwws it's like staring into the sun baby and ed knows if he looks at stede's face it's literally all over.

but also ed's face after stede pivots to "i love everything about you" he's SO pissed. he quietly groans and rolls his eyes bc this bitch. finding stupid loopholes to not being allowed to say "i love you." fuck this guy ed hates him so fucking much (lying)

oooooh when stede says "you don't have to say it back to me" ed's mouth opens and closes a bit before "not about to" bc this man is trying. SO hard not to cry (so am i but it's not working sorry there are tears on my face right now)

idk idk idk smthng abt "it's nice. feels good." makes me hurt so fucking bad bc the entire time since ed's woken up stede's been getting headbutted and snarked at passive-aggressively but stede's still like "i love being near you it makes me happy :)" brb i need. a fucking moment.

honestly tho how did annie and mary even overhear that bit bc they were on the other side of the room and stede was whispering SO quietly. opposite of when ppl in this show dont hear things despite the things being said like two feet away from them (1.03 geraldo and jackie talking abt how blackbeard was looking for stede, 2.01 zheng saying the indigo was worth way more than she spent on it)

LOVE how anne being like "stede likes the ladies" is how ed figures out "ohhhh wait ok theyre just fucking with us, got it" bc this guy??? liking women????? lmao

this also HAS to be why he gets over mary like his brain mustve gone "wait hang on why the fuck would he go back to her he doesn't even like women. guess maybe he really did panic huh" hdjksghfckghkjsh

obsessed with these TINY tiny details abt the ed/jack/annie/mary polycule dynamics we're given. ed would've expected as much from annie bc she's a fucking psycho. mary apparently used to not be like this. im putting the pieces together im connecting the dots.

ed and stede's knowing smug looks at each other. im obsessed.

annie being rlly sensitive to the word "bitch" im considering that more hints abt the polycule backstory

yayy fanny newspaper

"really? i mean she stabbed you, you poisoned her, and then she jumped on my face" stede this is all part of their very elaborate and deeply toxic sex life ok stop kinkshaming them

~~~

curious if ed and stede are too distracted by mary spelling out their worst fears to comment on all the smoke coming into the room

"everything must go" like a fucking clearance sale. this is such a silly line. this is a silly show. i love it here.

WHY DONT THEY MAKE OUT SLOPPY STYLE HERE THO

wait are they crying while they hug??? bro these girls are so fucking messy i love them

ed saying "see you guys" before he leaves them in their burning house. i would die for him

ok team arts and craft time while making a prosthetic for izzy. obsessed with how the b plot of this episode is literally "the crew struggles to get along but they eventually set aside their differences and work together when they realize there's someone even more cringe and pathetic than any of them"

"YOU ARE!!! HARASSING A CRIPPLE!!!!!!" is suchhhh a funny line im sorry im gonna miss izzy at his lowest fhsjkhjksf. literally they just knocked on the door my dude calm downnnn

obsessed with izzy being genuinelly touched and expressing it by saying "fucking cocksuckers." this man is allergic to having feelings.

stede and ed painfully talking over each other bc everything is awkward and difficult. i love them.

ed's face when stede offers to let ed stay. his very quiet "yis." the way he says "might be nice" and then VERY QUICKLY looks away

stede yelling GREAT at the top of his lungs fhdsjkguydfgfjkhl

i love when these guys try to play it cool bc theyre so fucking bad at it hgdfgvjfxdkgjjdkkgjhfdkh

stede bonnet dumb idiot moron moments

ed staring off lovinglyyyyyy

buttons jumpscare

also is that fucking sage. are we doing cultural appropriation here

buttons saying "Earth Wind and Fire i wanna go higher" hfjkhgfdjkhgjkh

i love how ed. does not question this "fuck yeah, brother. fly."

ed teach lovesick fool moments

i love how happy ed sounds telling stede abt buttons he sounds like his old goofy self for the first time all season.... im gonna cry

also i like how the crew adopts izzy as their new creature. 10/10

post credits scene is annie and mary at dinner with buttons. i guess it's after stede goes to comfort ed but before they go eavesdrop on that convo.

buttons enjoying his last meal as a human. and also he's like "there's too much fucking on that ship i need to get away from it all." and his way of doing this is becoming a bird. love that.

[spidermanifested]

revisiting the greeds moving castle au post-hmc rewatch here are some new thoughts hmmmmmmm

in my Envisioning. "homunculi" in this world are created when an alchemist (wizard) makes a deal with a demon, gaining the ability to use human souls (hearts) as a power source in exchange for. well. feeding human souls to a demon

for this purpose, souls are gathered from enemy countries via Forever Wars and crystalized into stones which an alchemist can ingest. the military is dedicated to finding the most promising alchemists and grooming them to become homunculi

greed was trained in alchemy by his father from a young age, along with his siblings. their family has immense sway over the royal courts, to the extent that one of his brothers (bradley) wound up marrying into the ruling family. when he came of age his education was handed off to the royal alchemist dante and their relationship did not remain professional very long. he became a homunculus at her encouragement, and then found out he didnt really like the whole "we have to maintain our dominance as alchemists via a lot of murder all the time" thing, and rapidly Howls Moving'd out of that castle

the demon he made a pact with is obviously the dwarf in the flask who im debating making like. okay so what if his father had previously Also made a pact with the same demon.... and then he transferred it to greed.... like ohh he gave up his power and even his life because he ~Saw So Much Potential In His Son~. Except one of the factors leading to greed hitting the bricks is discovering that, no actually, the demon was fully in charge of (the husk of) his father for years, and he just swapped to greed because he wanted a younger swaggier puppet. thatd kind of make a guy rethink his circumstances right

Anyway its pretty similar to calcifer if he leaves his flask he dies, and greed will also die if anything happens to him. greed keeps him very strictly restrained but doesnt tell anybody why he hates this little bongwater bitch so much because hed have to explain hes kind of his dad and itd be awkward

so. we have dante in the role of both suleiman And the witch of the wastes vis a vis being greeds ex, but i think the other part of the witch of the wastes (the "gets more sympathetic as the movie progresses" part) i want to hand to lust, because pulling from her 03 arc she would work very well as someone greed knows whos initially working for the court but gets abandoned and made an example of and then switches sides. also her getting all her power sapped and reverted to her real age would mean Old Lady Lust which would rule

markl is ling (duh) but because i dont think ling would give a shit about a random old guy stumbling into his house, the parts of his character that are initially suspicious of sophie i am going to instead bestow upon. dolcetto, greeds Rescue Dog. aka he was cursed by a witch into the form of a dog and greed was like oh sick a talking dog and dolcetto was too pickupable to escape his fate

martel is also there. talking snake martel. her and dolcetto are there to provide sarcastic banter while bido loses his mind

i initially didnt know how to fit roa in but then i realized i needed a turniphead standin. roa cursed into the form of a cow but he CANT talk and everyone thinks hes just a weird ass magic cow who keeps showing up to help but then the power of friendship turns him human at the end and dolcetto and martel are like okay now how come we cant do that.

i realize ive barely said anything about bido in this post about my au where bido is the main character. but to be fair. i feel like just saying "sophie is bido" gets the entire gist across. humble townsperson with big beautiful brown eyes is transformed against their will into something that makes it impossible to live their life as normal, theyre short with a big nose and wear a long skirt and like to fuck with people now that theyve got nothing to lose, they start working for a weird sexy guy who hates the government wears tight pants and has a shiny black monster form. Is not that complicated

i am now rotating the mental image of lust chuffing back a fat dart on the sofa while immediately outside the window dublith is on fire

[slashingdisneypasta]

Ive seen the f/o werewolves au and I absolutely love it. From the way it works to how they all handle their wolf side in different ways... I just find it so neat!

Callahan especially got my brain going 100 miles an hour, Just imagining him and the YN from your series dealing with it...

The days leading up to the first transformation where the animalistic-scary grows from "hot" to "concerning".

Him missing out on a date because, as fate would have it, happened in a full moon and then just... Ghosting, because he doesn't like the fact he can't control this quite yet.

He wanted to ravage YN before the transformation? absolutely. Make them his (mate)? Certainly. But this is beyond him. He can't control himself, just the sound of YN's voice from when they showed up at his doorstep (one last check. Giving him the benefit of the doubt.) is enough to send him into a bit of a frenzy, and he hates it.

And then one day YN returns to their dorm to find this big, weirdly wolf-like, old dog (if the grey muzzle is any indication) at their door. One that's weirdly docile and (even more surprisingly) friendly with them, despite the fact they never saw this dog in their life.

The dog approaches, carefully sniffing their hand, before pressing the top of its head against the palm. Still a bit weirded out, YN gives the animal a few tentative scratches and pets, which the dog seems to like.

(Mate is caring for him after so long after all...)

And just that presence, that care, that absolute freedom to be at peace with the one the two of them love is enough to bring the two consciousness together for long enough of a moment for Callahan to detransform.

Thankfully the shock of petting a naked Callahan (clothes having bursted out from the initial transformation) sent YN reeling back, which ended up reverting him back into a wolf. Wouldn't do to have that image floating around the college forums after all.

YN was able to guide Callahowl inside to wait out the moon. But in the morning, they would talk, as they made sure to tell the dog. Whether he could fully understand them or not was still up to debate, but at least he seemed to understand their tone and looked a bit chastised.

For the all of five minutes before YN relented and began to pet him again, cursing whatever entity that ruled their universe and made Callahowl such a cute dog.

FRIEND FRIEND FRIEND FRIEND

I GOT SO EXCITED WHEN I SAW THIS IN THE MORNING. I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO ANSWER IN KIND.

First of all I am s o so jazzed to see that you, too, are mad about Werewolf!Callahan like me!! XDD And 'Callahowl'???? OMG perfect XDDD Second of all-

YOUR FIC HERE. IT IS MAKING ME INSANE. Y/N being affectionate with this wolfie that loves her even though they have a sort of temperamental relationship when he's human?? 'Mate is caring for him after so long after all...'- this this this!!! Because like??- thats Aaron and Y/N loves Aaron. They do. But usually they cant show him that, because he's an ass and it would kill them- and he cant show it to them either because, again, he's a total ass-- but in this form??? His underlying desire for affection from them (His mate!! <3) comes out and Y/N doesn't have to worry about teasing (or worse) ^^

I also love your detail that his muzzle is lighter to show his age!!

Thank you so so much for sharing this!!!!!!!! ^^ I wanna write for Callahowl so so bad and one day I will XD I swear XD For now though here are some imagines for you, too!! In these, Y/N is actually his student but the relationship is basically the same apart from that.

Werewolf!Professor Aaron Callahan x Fem!Student!Reader || Imagines

Plot: Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon.

Warnings: There are smut imagines at the end that involve male masturbation topics as well as sex, and breeding ref's.

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon appearing in class dishevelled. His short hair unbrushed and ruffled like he's been constantly running his fingers through it, his shirt unbuttoned at the top, his jacket clenched at his side in his hand instead of on like it just got way too hot despite it being the middle of November, his glasses constantly crooked from rubbing his wild eyes.

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon only being calm when its just the two of you. When, after class, you stay back to check on him in the office. He slumps on the corner of his desk and watches you with a certain warmth you've never seen on him before. You fix his glasses and his hair, and his eyes fall shut at the feeling for half a moment before he can pull himself together. You offer him his blazer before you leave, and he takes it simply because you offered it, wanting to hold onto you in any way he can, but only holding it in his hands as you leave instead of pulling it on.

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon getting snippier and snippier with students, breathing heavily through his nose and rolling his eyes up to the sky and looking dangerously close to throwing things- but not to you. Not towards his mate (Not that you know you're that).

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon making a guy in your class with you, who was arguing con to your pro in a hypothetical court topic feel dumb and mortified in front of the whole class. He told the guy to oppose you (Its a regular law class activity!) but it turns out to be too much for him- he cant handle it. He has to stick up for you, protect you. And its nasty, and unfair, and awful, and everyone in the room feels the aftershock of it. Luckily, he's still him enough to brush it off and move on, but you're looking at him like he's insane the rest of the class and he knows he fucked up.

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon making up excuses why he's acting the way he is and why he keeps cancelling on you and they just keep getting worse. He's a smart guy, he's actually scary he's so smart, but now he's acting like an idiot and you're actually getting kindof concerned. You ask him, genuinely, if he's okay?

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon looking up and to the door any time you walk through it, looking over at you like he knew it was you who came in even if its too loud in the room for him to have heard the door even open and he had no way of knowing when you were going to get there. Because he's so tuned in to your scent, and his nose is so sensitive this time of month.

~ Hornycanons from here ~

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon getting hornier the closer his transformation closes in on him.

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon having to cover his mouth with his hand tight and hang up quick when you call because the bulge in his pants grew at record speed hearing you and he's going to moan if he stays; the sweet sound of your voice making him painfully turned on.

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon having to jerk off under his desk during lunch. You stay back to check on him, he takes his blazer from you, and then he sits down slowly and takes out his red headed, leaking cock to quickly pump one out; riding the high or your lingering scent and your voice in his head and the feel of your fingers on his hair just before.

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon having to excuse himself to go to the bathroom more often just in order to jerk off and keep his shit together.

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon who will fuck all night if you come to stay over. He'll fuck you against the wall when you come in, he'll fuck you on the couch, he'll fuck you all night in bed. He tries to bang it out, make the rest of his week easier, but thats not how it works.

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon who has to fight himself not to fucking cum in you, goddamnit. He doesn't want kids, he tells himself over and over. He doesn't want kids, he doesn't want kids. But the wolf in him desperately wants to fill you with pups. Luckily Cal's just strong enough to control that. Just.

Werewolf!Callahan in the days leading up to the full moon who is just a mess, and completely enamoured with you, and desperately wanting to hide it from you.

[rxttenfish]

ive been listening to an actual play of a delta green campaign lately and they arent particularly good but are at least very watchable when i just need human voices in the background, and for context this campaign is very long with a lot of detail and takes place over several decades, plus the players have taken multi-month breaks in between seasons of the campaign.

but the dm is doing the really annoying thing of, when a player cannot remember something but their character would know it, just not telling them what it is nor reminding them. inadvertently punishing them for a very easy mistake to make in a campaign with so many tiny obtuse details like this. making it uncomfortable to unwatchable to actually have to sit through because its just not fun to see information constantly be dangled in front of your face and know you recognize it but not being allowed to know in detail any of it.

and honestly i just dont even know why dms do this. why anyone does this actually. like i understand the urge to preserve the mystery and encourage people to figure it out on their own but you can also just say "do you want me to tell you this or no", especially when theyre already positioning it from an out of character perspective of "my character should know this, please help". like ive been going through the entire campaign in all of two weeks and I dont remember this shit.

its one of those things where i just dont understand the benefit of. what benefit is there to frustrating your players and just denying them random shit because you personally feel like they should earn it. its not fun to listen to. i dont want to sit here and watch the dm get more and more high and mighty over this shit. plus its just not considering your audience, which is a thing you DO now have to consider if youre recording your games and putting them online in a fairly large production that makes you cash, and if you didnt want that then you shouldnt have recorded it in the first place. even moreso when some of these "puzzles" are actually fucking god awful and contextless and things that you would NEVER figure out on your own if you werent just told it already.

that and so many of this dms rulings are just bullshit too. like its hard to talk about them without giving specific examples, but it really feels like a perfect embodiment of people viewing the dm and the players as competing against each other when they arent and ruining the game for it.

[willthespy]

just like. correction. there's no law against writing or drawing sexual stuff with underage characters. idk about where you live but there's a definition of a "real minor" which fictional characters are not. percy jackson is not a real minor, nico di angelo is not a real minor, leo valdez is not a real minor etc

if it was 'against the law', plenty of printed literature that works with topics of csa would be outlawed and censored. it is not.

i understand that you have a personal moral distrust towards authors who explore sexuality and sex in underage ship, that's your personal right. it's a logical fallacy to assume that adults who writes about the sexual life of teenagers are all creeps and it's dangerous to approach literature this way. teenagers fuck. it happens. the adults writing those fics used to be teenagers too. not everything that involves sexual exploration in fiction is written with a creepy intent. and we aren't even talking about real fucking teenagers. we're talking about some half-done concepts from a book.

that's it ig. i wanted to point out that you're fearmongering and are factually wrong. you can be morally against something and curate your experience but you don't need to scare people into being afraid of going to jail because they wrote a solangelo sex scene or smth. they genuinely won't.

take care

hey i was mostly talking about drawn stuff which there are laws for!!/nm i think i made a post on that with the whole law a while ago.

honestly about the written stuff i cant say much, but i think my biggest problem with the drawn stuff is that it is against internet rules and also the law if they are minors (drawn or not). of course its not that black and white and you wont ‘just get arrested’ but there is a law against it just like theres a law against piracy or public misdemeanor.

will you get arrested? no. is it against the law? depends where youre from, really. i def didnt say they would go to jail, but i ‘factually’ there are laws against it.

to get more into the ‘written’/fanfiction part… there’s many different laws for many different places, but it’s definitely illegal in some places. its in most cases of all those types (written vs drawn) more often the publishing that’s illegal, but like I said, you won’t just straight up go to jail. my biggest point has never been «youre bad youre gonna go to jail», it was that it was low key weird that youre imagining canon minors (not aged up) in sexual situations. not that those situations can’t be there (it’s pretty natural), but that you shouldn’t be publishing that crap as an adult/for adults because that is a tad bit odd. if it were any normal book (non-fanfiction) it’d just be them writing about children getting freaky n all. that’s the plot. to rhyme that, i do think it is odd.

and most of this isnt «exploring sexual relationships». trust me, ive seen some crazy explanations for why it should be correct and some included; «we are freaks on this app, we do what we want, we enjoy this because we can» etcetera. now even those arguments are not important, cause my point on that point is that exploring sexual relationships isnt the point, really. it’s entertainment made up of two (not aged up) underage characters, most often for adult’s pleasure/entertainment.

anyway i was kinda done talking about this but i get that you might have thought i was fear mongering? but i truly never said «hey did you know you and your ao3 buddy will be cellmates?» because i didnt. /nm

[comradeboyhalo]

I feel like the issue with comparing the QSMP to DnD is that the islanders would all be different levels, but the writers have to handle everything as if they are the same level. BBH was able to take on 3 eye works and even kill one solo, meanwhile the morning crew got their behinds handed to them by a group of lesser ratio. How do you balance combat for BBH the level 10 Warlock alongside Fit the level 3 Paladin?

yess youre definitely right! ive been thinking about this too, cause i think the dnd approach is necessary for the storytelling (i.e the idea of a loose plot map that the players stitch together), but combat is a different matter. also now im just going to start thinking out loud so please dont take any of what i say below seriously LOL you gave me an excuse to ramble!

overall i also dont really think its the actual combat that needs tweaking. its really more that the players need ground rules of what commands/godmodding the admins can do, or whether or not egg admins are teleporting themselves back ooc. there just needs to be communication about whether or not these fights are winnable, cause players need to have some agency and not feel demotivated, especially seeing some of the reactions from fit/bagi/tubbo. i want players to feel regret, i dont want them to chalk it all up to "oh the admins are just op". there shouldnt be a meta explanation like that, yknow? but ill also talk about fight balancing cause now im curious and want to brainstorm :D

to be fair, bad was only able to take down the eye workers because he started throwing mines, and thats something he's only able to do solo. if mines are out, then it just comes down to him tanking all the hits, because no weapon of his can do enough damage to kill them. qsmp already is doing some type of balancing with the enchanted stick: in that case, the worker who deals the most could focus on bad and burn through his totems while the rest deal with weaker islanders. i also think confusion is a really useful tool, which is why the mobs during code attacks were so scary with the blindness/weakness effects. the best "choreographed" code fights happened when there were waves of mobs, and the code attacked intermittently. this gives weaker players something killable to focus on and giving stronger players a bigger enemy (the npc) if need be, while also automatically hindering their fighting because of crossfire and effects. bad is a lot more cautious with his hits in group battles too.

i think the bigger issue is that armor is so strong on the server that you need crazy good weapons to make a dent. but no one has crazy good weapons except for the admins and etoiles. to get anywhere, the islanders need really creative ways to deal damage while not contributing to crossfire. and this stacks up the odds against all the islanders, whether theyre strong fighters or not. if its doable, the players need to know that its doable, cause rn even bad's idea with reinforced cobwebs was shot down when bagi told him they could just break it in creative mode. which brings me back to my first point. COMMUNICATE SOME GROUND RULES!

but anyways everything im saying is pointless cause i dont know what the lore reasons are 😭. i dont know what the story goals are rn so i cant offer up any good ideas. i really hope that the goal isn't to kill eggs, because i honestly think the qsmp has proven pre-purgatory that we don't need egg-centric storylines to keep the plot rolling. i think a lot of fun fights (and even deaths) can still happen without it feeling forced on the player and viewer end.

[entering--hyperspace]

Dragons, and the influence the Faerûn Pantheon has (or rather, does NOT have) over them. And how it relates to my tav

I've been thinking about how much the gods of dnd actually play a role within bg3, and kinda how having a True Dragon (albeit at first unknowingly) influences the story just a bit because of what he is.

To get started, Dragons have their Own Pantheon, assuming we are not ruling out pre-5e lore entirely. Bahamut and Tiamat are the most well known of course, they are also included in the Faerûn pantheon, so I won't be talking about them too much.

What I'm mostly concerned with are the two defying aspects (Life, Death, and fate) seeing as Withers is very obviously Jergal, and how The Dead Three (along with Vlaakith and Mystra) are all within bg3 in some way.

The Most Influential Dragon god is Asgorath/Io, the originator. He is briefly mentioned by Lae'zel within bg3 in a throwaway line. Known as the Ninefold Drgaon, Asgorath influences the fates of all dragons

There is also Chronepsis, Dragon god of Fate, Death and Judgement. A multi aspected god who may also be known as Null.

Now, to have a Dragon be put into the center of conflict of a story is rare indeed, which is why I like Págos so much. Dragons are often treated as mounts, villains, bosses, or otherwise just out of reach wells of knowledge one party may encounter only to move on with their lives.

It's special in the sense of bg3 because you are dealing with a Lot of Faerŭn gods, but in my canon bc Págos is a dragon none of these gods have Any actual influence over him? Dragons are outside of their jurisdiction unless specifically asked for their help by them. They have no hand to mold their clay, that is for their own gods. This is what makes Págos such an anomaly, because that is essentially what he is in bg3's story...An Anomaly.

Págos is from the ancient past frozen in time and wound up in the present. His fate is guarded by his own gods, leaving the faerûn pantheon to simply watch what is essentially a wild card wander into what could be a world-ending conflict. Withers mentions this, for being a god watching over fate and death, he had no insight into Págos which made dealing with him unsettling at the very least. In my head Elminster also mentions this to Gale as a forewarning about Págos from Mystra, Vlaakith knows this and becomes even angrier not just because of Lae'zel going against her, but because lae'zel is traveling with a companion that makes the entire situation much more dangerous for her, Same with Shar. It is why raphael tried so desperately to get págos into a contract with him. The stakes are higher with a glitch in the system, outside of their control and outside of their influence. Not to say they couldn't hurt him of course, they could they're gods, but its with the knowledge it isn't as simple as smiting someone when a greater power has placed them there, when doing so creates a plethora of problems than it would if págos was simply another mortal. I just think its all very funny. Its also my reasoning why they dont just directly influence him or the game outside of whatever reasoning is already provided.

And also, as a little side note about how ive been having so much fun with him as a character...its kinda like i said before. Dragons in dnd are incredibly powerful, knowledgeable, otherwordly PEOPLE. They are PEOPLE, they are highly intelligent (moreso than the mortal races) and can outlast civilizations...but they are never treated as such, a product of being a game npc. Dragons are regulated to side characterss, npcs, animals, threats, mounts, but never really delving deep into their own personhood. Never the heroes of a story...until now! Thats why I like Págos so much! Because I get to play with How a dragon actually interprets life and emotion differently. I get to delve deeper into lore like this, I get to play with a dragon interacting with others not as this outside influence but as a friend, as their ally. Especially with him being a chromatic dragon its doubly important since chromatics are often just considered evil and are more likely to be treated as animals despite the fact they are just as capable as their metallic counterparts. Anyway I just think its fun! Thanks for coming to my Tav ted talk.

[duhragonball]

JoJolion Ch.7-11

I checked, but I don't think Daiya is talking about "Roundabout" in this scene. Anyway, this is the "California King Bed" arc.

I don't want to spend too much time on the part where Josuke meets the Higashikata family, because they'll each get some time in the spotlight soon enough, starting with Daiya. This car ride to their mansion pretty much sets the tone, though. Norisuke Higashikata IV is the head of the household, and he acts like a vapid asshole some of the time, only to drop his facade now and then to reveal a quieter, darker side of himself.

Here, he asks Josuke whether he likes stuffed animals better than robot toys, and tries to psychoanalyze him based on his pick, which is the sort of thing a bullshit personality quiz on the internet would do. He takes his shoes off when he rides in the car, and apparently Josuke does the same, so he tries to bond over that. Yasuho takes her shoes off in solidarity, but no one seems to notice.

Also, he keeps trying to take pictures while he's driving, so he just comes across like a total clown.

But once they get home and the introductions are made, Norisuke takes him aside and sets some ground rules for Josuke's residence here. First, he has to look after his daughter Daiya, who is legally blind. I don't think she's completely blind, but her vision is pretty far gone by this point. Second, he tells Josuke never to go to the upstairs room. He doesn't even want him on the staircase, for that matter.

There's something kind of sinister about the whole thing, and the way he tells Josuke that "what I say goes". And this sets the tone for the whole family. Hato is some kind of fashion model, and pretty vain about it. Joshuu's a belligerent incel fool. Jobin ditches the family altogether before Norisuke can take a family picture with Josuke in it. The photo is a fiasco in itself, because Joshuu gets upset about having to cede the center of the picture to Josuke, and then Josuke wants Yasuho to be in the photo so she won't feel left out, and then Norisuke calls off the whole thing when he realizes Jobin's left.

Also, when Yasuho leaves the property to go home, their maid, Kyo Nijimura, passes along a message from Norisuke, warning Yasuho to never darken their door again. He doesn't want her tempting Joshuu with her feminine wiles, and he threatens consequences for her family if she tries to contact Josuke. Yasuho doesn't know what to make of this.

The joke's on Norisuke, though, because Yasuho's family is in pretty bleak shape anyway. She returns home to find her mother passed out drunk with a hickey, and she leaves the house in shame. She doesn't know where to go or what to do, and then she finds she got a letter back from a private lab that does DNA testing.

When they found Kira's corpse in the last arc, Yasuho didn't trust the police to investigate his connection with Josuke, so Yasuho took DNA swabs from both of them. I'm kind of impressed that she not only thought to do this, but collected the samples on the fly. Anyway, she sent them off to a lab for analysis, and report says that both samples are from the same person. This makes no sense, but as Yasuho gets how her phone to complain to the lab, she notices the photo she took of Kira's body, and the symbol on his right wrist. She remembers having seen it in her childhood, when she and Jobin used to play at the Higashikata house.

And Josuke has made the same connection, as he spotted the same symbol on the handrail of the Forbidden Staircase.

But Josuke has to deal with Daiya Higashikata first. So she's a music lover, with a particular fondness for prog bands like Yes. She claims to like Queen, but I know she's a fake Queen fan because she doesn't know the words to "Bicycle Race". But it gets worse.

So Daiya contradicts her father's instructions and tells Josuke not to make a fuss over her. In fact, she warns him against acting unnaturally, or getting worked up about her at all. To prove her point, she tries to pour herself tea, and Josuke sees she's not even over the cups, so he moves them into position. But this was a test to see if he was listening. Daiya knew where the cups were, but Josuke's overreaction triggers what she calls "a land mine". In fact, this activates her Stand, California King Bed.

Now, I'm not quite clear on how it works, but the upshot is that California King Bed plucks out a memory from the victim and turns it into a chess piece that Daiya can collect and "experience" for herself. It's sort of like Whitesnake from JoJo Part 6, but not exactly.

However, it seems like part of the Stand's power involves creating the illusion of a grotesque wound on Daiya's leg. Like, you can see bone in there, that's how bad it looks. Josuke thinks it's a burn, which is ridiculous. I think the idea is that the illusion wound is supposed to stimulate feelings of guilt and worry over Daiya, which facilitates the memory extraction. The thing is, she uses this power on Josuke three times, but the wound illusion only happens once.

Anyway, the first memory she takes is the symbol Josuke noticed. This upsets him, because he considered it an important clue to solving the mystery of his identity, but now he can't remember what it was or why he thought it was important.

Daiya explains her power to him in the interests of fairness, so I guess this is like a game to her. She says she fell into the "faults" where the Wall Eyes rose up. Soon after that, her vision got worse, but she developed her power, which she calls a "Stand". This seems to confirm that the Wall Eyes, or at least the fault line they emerged from, are somehow responsible for these characters getting Stands. I think the common theme is that you fall into or onto one of them. Josuke had that bite mark on him when Yasuho found him, and then Joshu pushed Yasuho to the ground in chapter 1, and then Josuke knocked him out soon after that, and they both developed the same bite marks. Now we see Daiya probably experienced the same thing when she was 2 or 3 years old.

I guess her blindness is just part of the Stand's ability? Either that or she suffered some injury that damaged her vision when she fell.

The important point is that she plans to steal Josuke's memories one by one, so he basically has to do exactly as she bids, or she'll make him forget everything else but his duty to her. Also she wants to seduce him, so that's a thing.

She does tell him that her Stand has one weakness. If she steps on his shadow, the effect is canceled and the stolen memories return to him. So Josuke tries to trick her by turning off the light in her walk-in closet, which will allow the bedroom light to cast his shadow into the closet where she's standing. His own Stand, Soft and Wet, is useful for silencing the sound of the light switch, but it doesn't work. Somehow, Daiya figures it out. Maybe she can hear the faint electrical hum in the light bulbs. As she confirms this, Josuke realizes he's in deep shit, so he tries to call Yasuho on Daiya's cell phone to get help. But it's too late, Daiya catches him on the light switch, and she removes another memory, this time of Yasuho herself.

From here, Daiya tries to seduce Josuke, and it almost works, but he's sure that there was something important he had to do, so he's not quite putty in her hands just yet. Meanwhile, Norisuke sees them in bed through her open door (!), and he's furious at first. Then he decides that he's cool with it, because this means Daiya will completely enslave him, which suits his plans.

Daiya tries to go on a bike ride with Josuke, and they meet Yasuho on their way out. Daiya can't see her, and Josuke no longer recognizes her, which Yasuho finds suspicious. Okay, here's my beef. She says she wants to sing "Bicycle Race" with him while they ride, but she wants to do the part where he says "I like my bicycle better than Star Wars".

Those are not the words, dammit. They weren't the words in 1978, when Queen released the album "Jazz". They weren't the words in 2011, when this story is set, and they weren't the words in 2017, the last time I complained about this. It goes:

You say black, I say white You say bark, I say bite You say shark, I say hey man Jaws was never my scene And I don't like Star Wars

Get it right, Daiya.

Anyway, Josuke makes another attempt to get her to step in his shadow. He uses Soft and Wet to throw his voice so it sounds like he's behind her telling her which way to steer the bike, when in fact he's hanging from a tree, I guess hoping she'll bike over his shadow? It doesn't work because she can't feel him holding on behind her. So she takes a third memory, this time of Soft and Wet. Josuke still has his Stand, but now he doesn't remember that he has one or how to use it. Ouch.

Daiya thinks she's won, since Josuke has no way to protect himself from her ability, but there's just one more loose end. Her phone rings, and it's coming from the refrigerator. Seems Josuke hid the phone in there earlier while she wasn't looking.

So Daiya orders Josuke to get it for her and close the door. She plans to answer the phone, and if it's Yasuho calling him back from before, then she intends to destroy his captured memories, deleting them permanently. Josuke can only follow instructions, but...

He left a soap bubble active when he hid the phone earlier. Yeah, he doesn't remember Soft and Wet now, but he did when he set this up. That bubble imitated the sound of him closing the fridge door, and so Daiya didn't notice that the fridges light was still casting Josuke's shadow near her feet. Check and mate.

Josuke gets all his memories back and takes the call. He thanks Yasuho for calling him back and says he'll call her in a minute. As for Daiya, she concedes defeat and asks Josuke if he loves her, and he's like "No, your kind of a creep, but you're honest at least." He says he'll like her better if she lets him have her phone from now on, and if she agrees not to tell anyone about him going into the room on the second floor. Then he gives Daiya a little of the ol' Josuke Sugar on the cheek to seal the deal. Daiya never had a chance.

This works out well for Josuke, because Norisuke thinks that Daiya is controlling him, when it's actually the other way around. The next morning he goes to the... I guess only bathroom in this entire mansion? He has a shave in front of Joshuu and Hato. He shaves his face like he's some sort of deranged maniac, but his Soft and Wet powers make it work. The side-effect is that all of the stubble on his face gets transferred to Joshuu and Hato. Oops.

Finally, Josuke and Daiya go into the upstairs room, which is a study full of old books. The symbol is that of a publisher, and it matches a book written by Norisuke Higashita I, the patriarch of the Higashikata Family. The book is a chronicle of the Steel Ball Run race from 1890-91. This was a transcontinental race held in the United States, and Norisuke I got second prize. He returned to Japan soon afterward and invested the money in the fruit importing business, which then led to the rise of the Higashikata Family's prosperity in the 21st Century.

The book also contains a family tree, and Josuke notices that Yoshikage Kira's name is on it. Turns out Norisuke I had a daughter, Rina, who married an American named Johnny Joestar, and Kira was their great-great grandson. So that gives Josuke a clue about the connection between the Higashikatas and Kira. He looks up other names on the Joestar wing of the family tree, but the only one he can track down is Kira's mother, Holly Joestar Kira, an ophthalmologist. So now he's going to see if he can find her and see what she knows.

You know, it's funny. I haven't kept up with Part 9, but I do know that some other names have been added to this family tree. Jodio and Dragona Joestar, and maybe their parents, are still out there, although they probably wouldn't know anything about Kira or any of this business. Also, they're in Hawaii or whatever, and that's probably what Josuke means here when he says his searches show that he won't find the rest of Kira's family. It's not that Holly is the only one left, but she's the only one that he can track down in Morioh.

And that's pretty much it as far as Daiya is concerned. I think there was a time when JoJolion first started, when Daiya was viewed as a much more central character to this story. This was probably because she was the second enemy Josuke had to defeat, and the first one he converted over to his side. And people probably liked her design. But after this arc, she really doesn't have much to do in the rest of the story. I mean, maybe I'm forgetting a scene, but I remember being pretty surprised that she never did anything after this. Oh well.

[kcrabb88]

Three sentence fic prompt: Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, set during the Clone Wars, bonding over traumatic experiences. Maybe they’ve been captured by Dooku and are awaiting rescue so they’re just passing the time swapping stories? Or it’s post-mission, Obi-Wan’s been injured, is on some nice space drugs for the pain, but needs a minder to keep from wandering off because with the drugs he forgets how badly off his body is, so of course his grandpadawan is the perfect candidate, and he tells her way too much about his time as a Padawan.

Okay, hope this is enough inspiration for a ficlet (or two 😊)!

(Oh my gosh LOVE THIS! I'm going to do the second one now, but I might come back around to the first one. This got long OOPS).

Obi-Wan Kenobi is many things. Wise--a sage of the Order at not even forty. A brilliant diplomat. A renowned lightsaber duelist. Fond of dry humor. 

One thing he also is, Ahsoka has learned, is stubborn, especially when he's hurt. I'm fine, he insists, when he is most decidedly not fine. When she first became Anakin's Padawan (and half Obi-Wan's Padawan) she thought the youngest member of the Jedi Council, calm and collected as he was, would be a good patient.

As it turns out, he's the opposite.

So here she sits, in the medbay of a docked Republic star-cruiser, tapping her foot on the metal bar of the chair next to Obi-Wan's bed. She is his minder for the next two hours while Anakin cleans up after their mission trying to chase Dooku down and reports in to the council--without Obi-Wan, which should be ... interesting.

Dooku, cheat that he is, sent dozens of Magna Guards after them while leading them through a rock-filled canyon, and Obi-Wan, getting in the way as Dooku hurled a rather large rock--boulder?--took said rock straight to the ribcage. Several were broken, and it took a while to clean up the blood. The Bacta patches are taking care of the worst of it--the bones will take time to heal--and Kix hooked Obi-Wan up to a fair amount of powerful pain killers, which are now flooding through the IV.

Ahsoka looks over when she senses her grandmaster waking up.

"Ahsoka?" Obi-Wan asks, his voice thick.

Ahsoka tries not to laugh.

"Hey, Master Obi-Wan," she says, smoothing his blankets with one hand. "I'm your minder for a bit. Anakin's orders."

Obi-Wan frowns. "Anakin can't give me orders. I'm a high general."

"He can give me orders," Ahsoka replies. "And Kix gave you orders to stay here. So did Cody. Which they can do when you're injured."

Obi-Wan considers this. "I don't think that's how it works. Where is Anakin?” 

“Cleaning up and talking to the council.” 

“Without me?” 

“I’m afraid so.” 

“May the Force be with me at the next meeting, then,” Obi-Wan mumbles. “Anakin can do anything, you know? I trust him. But sometimes when he talks to the council he forgets to leave out how many rules he broke along the way. It takes ... finesse.”

His comm buzzes on the table going off once and then again. "Who is--" he scrambles for the comm, and, lacking his usual coordination, knocks it off the table.

"I got it." Ahsoka gets up, hiding her amusement with her back turned. She checks to see who commed. "It was Master Vos. I dunno if you should be comming anyone right now, though."

Obi-Wan flops back against his pillows. "He probably wants to know if I'm at the temple." He sighs. "I wish I was at the temple. Nobody like Quinlan to make me forget I have broken ribs.” 

Interesting.

"You've known him since you were Padawans, right?"

"Mhmm. He's so ... frustrating, but I ... he's a dear friend. Stupid man with his ... stupid grin."

Despite the slurred words and the light insults, Ahsoka hears deep affection in her grandmaster's voice.

Very interesting.

She scoots her chair closer. "Tell me a story from when you two were young. I don't know enough of those."

"Well," Obi-Wan supplies, far more easily than normal, "once, Quinlan's master gave him to Qui-Gon for a while for ... some reason I can't remember. And we were supposed to be meditating, but Quinlan was flirting with me and it was distracting."

Ahsoka covers her laugh with her hand. "Oh? You weren't flirting?"

"No, I was, but he was doing it ... more. Anyway, he did one headstand too many and fell into the river. I dove in after him without really thinking how to get him out."

"That doesn't sound like you, Master."

Obi-Wan shrugs. "Like I said, he was ... distracting. I wasn't ... I was silly. Qui-Gon had to come and help us get out. He was always asking me about Quinlan after that, like I was going to tell him anything. I loved Qui-Gon but you don't ... I wasn't going to talk to him about that."

"No." Ahsoka shakes her head, making assumptions about what that could be. "No of course not."

"Ahsoka?" Obi-Wan asks.

"Yes, Master Obi-Wan?"

"You did a good job today. I don't recall much of what happened just now, but you did."

Brushing back some of Obi-Wan's hair to help manage her feelings, Ahsoka smiles again, choked up.

"Thank you, Master."

Obi-Wan takes her hand and falls back asleep, and when Anakin comes in three-quarters of an hour later, he's still asleep.

"Did he wake up at all?" Anakin asks, immediately adjusting Obi-Wan’s blankets. 

“For a few minutes,” Ahsoka says. 

“Did he say weird stuff? He always does when he’s on pain medication and he’s actually awake.” 

“Yep.” 

“Will you tell me what it was?” 

“What he told me is a secret between a Padawan and her Grandmaster. You’ll just have to make sure you mind him next time if you want in on that.” 

[andromerot]

mabel, episode twenty six: dans macabre. in which our dancing slippers are worn threadbare.

UM. LUNA THORNE IS DEAD. LONG LIVE LUNA THORNE. just like. luna trying her best to read as persephone. she is not persephone.

"i made every choice of my own free will" "sometimes i dont know" she DIDNT. she DID NOT! love is a leash that pulls both ways!!

logs in posts mabelvera logs out

anna being evil compilation. she sucks so much i love her. mabel hesitating...

theres just something about anna in season two talking about how men see women, how the king looks at luna, and now that mabel confronts her about the power she holds over her and the choices she makes about her own life she just crumbles. shes never held any power over anyone before, and she loves the feeling of it when she can use it against vera, but when she notices she rules over mabel too...that fucks her up for sure. also something about the tension in season 3 being mabel not wanting anna because she's afraid she doesnt want her the same way and anna trying to make her believe her. and the tension in season 4 being anna wanting mabel and mabel believing her, but resenting her percieved lack of autonomy. right?? idk i want to hear peoples opinions about this

banger tunes tbh

sigh. i know ive been ignoring them until now but hi cultists hi brandon hi jonathan hi other guy

veraaa :(

throws up etc

when i read lolita i will revisit this and probably feel highly unwell about it. until then...

ugh i wanna get to know the court soooo bad. how it works and who is in there i think theyre so fun. im a thornblood and chalcedony stan first a mabel and anna stan second. i just remembered my court oc i had a couple years ago she was one of lunas handmaidens and she sucked i should bring her back

infinite regress! girl ouroboros!

i love lesbian on lesbian violence

MADRIGAL :( waahghghg jack........ask me about jack

SIGH.

[chocolateteepot]

#mmm#like yes good#ive also loved the idea that the camera panned on Loki BECAUSE he was the loved one that Thor betrayed#or like the only loved one that Thor would care he betrayed#thor#thor 1 (via @galaxythreads)

I love this shot because both are true. We know about Loki's machinations, but his manipulation of Thor was just him putting the idea out there that Thor could still do his murder campaign without his dad's permission. Thor wasn't tricked into doing a massacre, that was what he wanted to do all along, Loki just makes him realise he could still do it!

The Shakespearean tragedy of it all for Thor is that this manipulation only works if Thor is exactly as dangerously arrogant and reckless a warmonger as Loki is convinced he is. Which is why Loki does it in the first place. I also feel like his immediate facepalm after Thor takes the bait makes it look like it was a test? Thor taking the bait proves Loki right. I don't think anyone's even looking at him when he does this:

Is he just that committed to the bit? Or was he hoping Thor would prove him wrong? Thor also then dismisses Loki trying to talk him out of it.

At this point, as far as Thor knows; Loki tried to talk him out of going in the first place, then tries to get them out without bloodshed, then Thor blows the genuine GIFT of retreat Laufey just handed them becuase someone calls him a princess and goes full murder rampage.

Loki is one of the loved ones Thor just betrayed. He almost got his brother and friends killed, and he didn't even notice when one of them was gravely injured. He ignored them desperately calling for him to stop and retreat. He put his own selfish desire to 'teach the Jotuns a lesson' (and seeming just pure enjoyment of enacting it) above the safety of his friends and his little brother.

(His little brother who, ironically, would also have been injured if he hadn't secretly been Jotun all along.)

And I think that dynamic is particularly relevant here too - the whole 'older sibling feels real or imagined duty to protect their younger sibling' - for Thor and Odin. It's a specific kind of betrayal to find out you cannot trust your oldest child with the most basic safety of your youngest.

For Odin as a parent (if we can call him that), this must read as your arrogant, violent oldest son dragging his pacifying-voice-of-reason little brother into a war you expressly forbade him from starting.

Obviously, out of the group that Thor took with him, Loki is the most important - to Odin (for cynical reasons at least) and to Thor. And yeah, Thor betrayed Odin by going against his ruling (technically treason??? how many times has treason been committed in these films.) - and basically all of Asgard by starting a war - but the camera focuses on Loki. Because their wildly co-dependent relationship is Thor's most important one, because Loki is his younger sibling, and because Thor would feel guiltiest for betraying Loki specifically.

But also, tragically, Loki is the impetus. He lit the match, got the ball rolling to prove Thor would betray them all (including him) in this way, in order to prove him unfit to be king. Loki is the instrument of his own hurts, he had to prove Thor would hurt him in order to prove Thor would hurt him.

You’re unworthy!