#like as an institution they are fascinating

[mochinomnoms]

How do you think explaining Christmas would go down with the boys? I'm specifically looking at Krampus, cause the holiday is all about joy and hope and lights and and giving, and then there's just this half goat demon man that will stuff you in a sack and torture you for Your Sins.

The story of Krampus is actually really metal tbh. There was this evil butcher that killed, chopped, and salted these three kids that were hanging outside his shop, and then St. Nicholas came along and uses the Power Of God to commit actual fucking necromancy to bring the kids back to life. God then cursed this butcher to follow around St. Nich as a punisher that comes around every December 5. The French call him "the whipping father" it's fucking insane actually.

Some of the holiday is also a little weird when you put it into perspective, like: oh yeah, there's this red guy that you write letters to and then he breaks into your house and you leave an offering of milk and cookies for him in exchange for candy and gifts :D! He also has flying reindeer with very cute names btw! But we're not going to talk about that actually cause now we have to decorate this whole ass pine tree that I brought into ramshackle :D it's gonna be great! :D

Bro imagine giving them advent calendars! Those little ones with the small toys or chocolates- give one to Riddle he needs one. Lots of sugar intake to catch up on

🦩

To be real, I was raised very Catholic (ew) and traditionally Mexican so my Christmas stuff is very different from what you see on TV and like in Hallmark movies.

So like, we celebrated it as a religious holiday, so the Santa stuff is kinnda foreign to me, I only heard about it from school. We still got presents and stuff, but I remember doing Posadas, which is children reenacting the Mary and Joseph seeking shelter by going to houses and singing and asking for shelter. At the end we go to one of the parents' houses or to the church and have a little party! We also didn't really decorate like I've seen in American homes, we had like a cute tree usually, but mostly decorated the altars to La Virgen and the Nativity scene.

The biggest difference I've found is that we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve instead; we had Nochebuena, so we'd go to midnight mass, have dinner, and at midnight we open presents. Technically, kids didn't get presents because of Santa or anything like that, we got it cause kids get gifts like how the three kings gave baby Jesus presents. Though that also is a different winter holiday in January or February, not sure. When I got older my family started getting more Americanized, and my brothers got the whole Santa deal, but we still did a lot of the church stuff.

Considering that there is no mention of any sort of religious institution in Twisted Wonderland, I imagine my explanation of Christmas would be very foreign. Though Noble Bell College basically being Notre Dame in the Masquerade event and Rollo practically inventing Catholic guilt in a world without Catholics has some implications? I actually don't think there is any mention of any deities that the cast or world in general worship, though perhaps it's implied with Hades? He's not referred to as God of the Underworld though, he's King so maybe??

This got off-topic, but I like to think any explanation of traditions from back home is fascinating to the boys! And there's a lot of winter holidays besides Christmas and Las Posadas, I mean Hanukkah is big and Yule is reemerging as people learn more about where traditions from Christmas comes from.

If you're like me and have a religious aspect to your winter holidays, I think they're curious about it and asking all sorts of questions! If you had the more traditional American Christmas, then they're super curious about the whole Santa deal! Like, they thought you said your world didn't have magic, so what's with this magically man in a red suit and white beard?

(Also, I don't know what advent calendars are, they have candy I'm guessing? If it's a calendar, then I'm safe to assume it's like a count-down to Christmas day?)

[mrs-stans]

How Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson got under each other’s skin for ‘A Different Man’

Adam Pearson and Sebastian Stan both know what it’s like to have people stare at them and be made to feel like they owe the public something.(Sean Dougherty / For The Times)

By Tim Grierson

When Adam Pearson was young, he rubbed elbows with celebrities. “I was at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, one of the best pediatric institutes in the world,” he recalls of the London facility, “and they often had famous people come in to meet the kids. I met Boyzone, a big Irish boy band in the ’90s. The other one was Princess Diana.” The British actor was 5 when he was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis Type 1, a condition that resulted in the growth of large tumors across his face. Those tumors would often cause passersby to gawk cruelly, which made Pearson feel an unlikely kinship with the notable figures who stopped by the hospital. “I was like, ‘Oh, these people get the same staring and pointing I do, but people seem to like them.’ I wasn’t resentful, it was just an observation I made as a 12-year-old: ‘Oh, OK, that’s fascinating.’”

Decades later, Pearson, who turns 40 in January, is on a Zoom call from London alongside his co-star Sebastian Stan, beaming in from New York, to discuss their thought-provoking, satirical film “A Different Man,” which is all about appearance and perception. Writer-director Aaron Schimberg introduces us to Edward (Stan), a struggling actor with neurofibromatosis who believes he’ll be happier once he undergoes an experimental procedure that removes his tumors, revealing the sexy man underneath. Later walking around New York with a new identity — that of the slick real estate agent Guy — he discovers that the aspiring playwright he pined for, Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), has written a drama about his former self, who will be portrayed by Oswald (Pearson), a happy, charming man with neurofibromatosis. Guy looks on in horror as his old life is played with such flair by Oswald, who steals Ingrid away as well. Maybe it wasn’t his condition that had held him back — maybe it was just him.

Stan, 42, found two-time Oscar-nominated makeup artist Mike Marino to craft the realistic mask for Edward. But there was something even more important for Stan to get right. “I wanted to talk to Adam about how he was feeling about myself playing this part and having someone step into these shoes without neurofibromatosis,” he says. “Just really trying to be mindful and understand how I need to approach this so I can be of service to the character but also to somebody who actually has this condition.”

It was during those initial conversations that Pearson, who previously appeared in “Under the Skin” and starred in Schimberg’s 2018 drama “Chained for Life,” gave Stan, best known as the Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the insight that living with neurofibromatosis was not dissimilar to being famous. “They both come with certain levels of invasiveness,” Pearson explains. “You almost become public property. The public feels that you owe them something. So while Sebastian might not know the staring, the name-calling, the camera phones in a way I do, he certainly knows what it’s like to have people think [they] deserve to have a selfie with him.”

Sebastian Stan plays an actor with an ugliness inside, Adam Pearson plays the disfigured actor who is charming and confident, and Renate Reinsve is friend to them both. (Matt Infante/A24)

The absolute honesty between the two actors was crucial for a film that is candid about the stigmas around disfigurement. Schimberg, who became friends with Pearson during “Chained for Life,” also drew from his own experience with a cleft palate. “Aaron is such an incredible writer — he’s set up these things that rope you in as a viewer to judge Edward because of his appearance,” Stan says. “We project these stereotypical thoughts: ‘He’s lonely, somebody’s taken pity on him.’”

But with Oswald, “We haven’t made the connection yet that someone like Adam could actually be OK with themselves — and not only that, incredibly confident and accepting of themselves as they are.”

Indeed, “A Different Man” toys with our expectations, depicting Oswald as the life of the party, while the conventionally handsome Guy is riddled with insecurity. Unsurprisingly, Stan and Pearson have noticed that viewers sometimes don’t know what to make of Schimberg’s acerbic sense of humor.

“I’m always looking around to see what’s landing and what isn’t landing, because I’ve never had an audience react the same way,” Pearson says, amused. “Everyone finds different things either funny or uncomfortable.”

“The film asks very important questions in terms of disability and disfigurement,” adds Stan, “but we can also offer people permission to experience the film as they might. It is funny. Aaron Schimberg has said, ‘If you think this is a comedy, that’s fine — if you think this is a tragedy, that’s fine too. It’s both.’”

Much has been made of Stan’s recent so-called risk-taking performances, including in the Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice.” (He won Berlin’s lead actor trophy for “A Different Man.”) “One of the reasons I’ve lately gravitated more toward what I’d call ‘transformational’ roles is because they do make it easier to lose yourself and to stay in it for the entire time,” suggests Stan, who lived in Romania and Vienna as a child. “I wanted to be an actor because it saved my life. I grew up in a very weird, chaotic time. I was always searching for identity — I came to this country when I was 12, and it was a shocking experience. Acting was a way of release and communication — it was a language, in a way, and it allowed me to understand myself.”

Pearson understands that sentiment. “There’s something inherently terrifying about putting yourself out there,” he says. “When I first got into TV when I was 25, one of my friends gave me what we now lovingly call ‘the talk of doom.’ He was like, ‘You are going to go on TV, and people watch TV — if they don’t like you, they will tell you on whatever platforms you are on. Do you think you can handle that?’”

He could, and his work in “A Different Man” has only raised his profile. Now he’s the one who’s a celebrity, although he acknowledges those old anxieties remain.

“Even now, my friends are like, ‘Aren’t you just a little bit scared that people are going to [not like you]?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m always scared,”’ Pearson says. “Option A is, ‘Don’t do it,’ and then Option B is, ‘Do it scared.’ And I’d rather do it scared than not do it at all.”

[burnnouts]

Yennefer watched--and listened--with curiosity. The concept was fascinating--and alarming. She did not much like the idea of sharing her memories with any creature, but she could at least admit that such a bond with an animal was preferable to a human. Yet, she had very little time to contemplate the idea before Beck began a process that was far more fascinating.

She watched, wrapt with interest, as the divot in the boat took shape, as the blood was added. Blood magic was forbidden where she came from, but that had never stopped her practicing it all the same. She, therefore, could feel no surprise or worry that Beck was familiar with such a practice. What happened next was a far greater surprise. She gripped the side of the boat as smoke formed around her feet, rising up through the ship and filling the very air around them. As the boat lurched, Yennefer reached out instinctively for Beck's arm. The last thing they needed was for Beck to go flying overboard into the now smoke drenched waters. But the woman was steady on her feet and did not seem to need any aid at all.

What was more, the chaos lasted only a moment. "Impressive." Yennefer watched the space where the ox had been, but the water was calm now. The spell had worked. She had not doubted that Beck was able, but she had to say, she appreciated the dramatics of it. Simple magic had its purpose, but she did always enjoy the spectacle.

"I have heard stories of familiars. Read about them, to be more accurate. I have never met anyone who had one." Yennefer had made it her business long ago to understand magic beyond the walls of the school that had trained her. She had learned much in Aretuza, but like all institutions, it was limited in what it could offer her. Magic was much stronger--and stranger--than what could be taught in a single classroom. So Yennefer traveled, seeking out strange tales of mysterious sorceress across the seas, and she read every book she could get her hands on. Familiars came up frequently, but the more she learned about them, the less surprised she was that she and the sorceresses she knew had never had one. Their magic was much more about taking than it was about connection.

Long ago, the humans had taken their magic from the elves. They had poor understanding of its working, no inner connection to its power, but they had forced its hand all the same. Yennefer herself was a child of both worlds: her father's eleven blood made her magic stronger than most, but it also meant less opportunities in a land prejudiced against eleven kind. She had had little opportunity to study magic as it once was--connected to the land and the animals that resided within it. Beck's connection to the world around her was fascinating, and Yennefer felt, for the first time in a very long time, envy at another's powers.

"I can summon aid when required." She raised her left hand, and a raven appeared out of thin air, tendrils of purple magic surrounding its wings--though only for the briefest of seconds. It fluttered down and rested upon her ring finger. She stroked its head. "My birds can send messages. Perform favors. Attack, if necessary. They understand what I need, so I suppose the connection is telepathic. But they are rarely the same bird twice. The magic involved is a tool, not a relationship. That will be all," she added to the bird and it vanished in a wisp of purple smoke.

"How many familiars do you have exactly?"

"Angrboda?" Beck asked, tilting her head. It occurred to her that the few witches she had seen in this land had no familiars by their side.

"Nearly all my people have familiars. Most start as animals, like Angrboda. I---found her several years ago. She was just a kitten at the time. When she began the process to be my familiar, she gained sentience, as well as all of my memories, and I shared all of hers as well. That's the way it usually goes. Sometimes---hold on just one moment I need to focus."

She was studying the runes and the shape of the written part of the spell, moving her lips as she silently pieced it together. All the while, her finger followed the same pattern as her eyes, and smoke wafted up from the wood as it singed. A shallow channel was burned in the side of the cabin, no deeper than the end of her fingernail, and Beck pressed the sharp end of her wand to the heel of her left hand until blood slowly oozed from the wound.

"You're sure about this?" The feline asked a final time, but she silenced herself when Beck shook her head. When she was finished, it was revealed that she shape she was burning into the cabin of the boat was the head of an oxen. She burned uruz into the forehead of the wooden beast before dipping her finger into her own blood and filling the shallow channel with it. Then, in the same blood, she drew a bridle onto the beast, and---in case she hadn't done it correctly, gripped the side of the boat.

Her familiar began to recite the words written beside the spell, and Beck followed. They had drifted away from the docks and out of the immediate sightline of the humans from the nearby town, thankfully, but the lazy current had left them almost completely motionless in the middle of the river. The boat was not burning, but the symbol of the ox's head began to glow and angry red, and black smoke billowed from it. It filled the bottom of the boat, rising like a tide, until it spilled over the side and began to encircle the entire vessel. The grunt and snort of a bull could be heard all around them, though they appeared to be the only people or animals in sight.

"Hold on." She demanded just as a great force slammed against the back of the boat. They lurched forward and Beck cursed, but ever steady, remained on her feet. The smoke was taking shape now, the spirit of the beast being pulled from the Dream Realm was one of pure strength and endless vitality and---having been pulled from its lazy pastures in the realm of the spirits---unbridled rage. It stared down at them with glowing red eyes, and Beck stared back unbothered. This was not the part of the spell that concerned her. She breathed in deep, presented her hand to the furious spirit, and shut her eyes as she hummed a lilting tune. Smoke parted and twisted around her outstretched arm. It tasted her. Beck did not flinch.

After a moment, the smoke began to settle, and the glowing eyes of the spirit faded to gray. The boat slowed to a steady but strong pace, and the beast swayed along, ever so slightly, to her tune before circling the boat a final time and sinking into the water. All that remained visible of the spirit when Beck brought her hand back to her side, was a thin, wispy layer of fog atop the water.

Beck sank down onto the boat with a little laugh, as Angrboda licked water from her paw. She must have gotten splashed when the boat was being knocked about.

"That was a bit stronger than I meant for it to be. Oh well." She laughed, a little breathless. "He settled in at the end. What were we saying? Oh! Familiars. Yes. The vast majority begin as animals, though some people make familiars of magical creatures that are already sentient and some, like my other familiar, are incarnations of spirits. It's rare, but it happens. Do none of your people have familiars?"

[ghost-bxrd]

I read the ask about dimensional travel in owl song before the preview post showed up in my feed. I also happened to be standing in the security line at the airport at the time. I was all like wtf wtf wtf WTF, frantically scrolling through tumblr, while the poor TSA agent was all, ‘Ma’am I need to scan your boarding pass’ and in my head I was like ‘I have more important things to worry about!!!’ Luckily I chose not to create an international incident and surrendered my phone so they could scan my boarding pass. It was a close call though.

✨🦉🎶✨

Lmaoooooo, yeah that pesky security always wanting your phone right? 😭 hehe no really tho this made me grin like a little kid presented with a cupcake. I love to see that people enjoy Owl Song as much as I do writing it 💚💚💚💚🦉

[pmpknsoup]

i actually am a defender of georgie and melanie and basira being mean or rude to jon bc that man really needed to be put in his place sometimes. like i understand that they were also wrong sometimes— basira is hypocritical and the other two could be nastier than necessary, but i literally cannot blame them at all. jon was so out of line sometimes

[cookinguptales]

I was trying to learn more about Japan's parapsychology craze in the 80s and 90s and was having a surprisingly difficult time finding good sources on Google. So I kept trying different search terms and finally this comes up

cia??? freedom of information act???

Anyway!! I clicked on it and the page is "down for maintenance" and I have never been more consumed with curiosity lmao.

I had no idea that Google would search through FOIA documents...

[mantictiger]

I'm fascinated by Gwendolyn Bouchard for a multitude of reasons (love me a girlfailure) but what I'm the most curious about is why she's so hellbent on having Lena's position at the OIAR. It's been established that the Bouchards are a very well-off family (I can't remember if thats tmagp-specific lore or if that was mentioned in tma as well) so it's not like Gwen needs the job, especially a job that doesn't seem very glamorous. She seems incredibly dedicated to it though (her being so insistent with specific filing of cases in episode 1 I believe? is what piqued my interest) and is so insistent on climbing a corporate ladder that only seems to lead to Lena's position for no real reason. I get the OIAR is a part of the UK government and that could look good if she's trying to get higher-up positions, but the OIAR is certainly far from a respected or well-known organization (as far as I am aware) so I'm not really sure what her goal is here, and I really hope we find out

[dilfssi]

on the haunting of fc barcelona

[sysig]

Do I know you? Do I know you? Do I know you? (Patreon)

[ghost-bard]

im like varric in a lot of ways, mainly that I too have an odd fascination with sebastian vael but instead of being a little freak that insults him every five minutes bc why would varric ever admit to potentially being infatuated with him, im very open about wanting to fuck him. i could make him worse, but he'd be better for it.

[punkrogue]

one of my fave things about the xmen is like half of them are super geniuses or experts in some field and half of those people don't even have high school diplomas. none of these people are accredited but half of them can build a fusion reactor as a fun weekend project

[the-magpie-archives]

The thing about blood is that once you've seen it you can never really get it out. It has a tendancy to linger, to drip into those places impossible to reach, a slow unnoticeable movement breaking its stagnation. Even if you think you've got all of it, chances are you haven't. The smell lingers, a sickly sweet fuzzy smell tinged with iron that somehow sticks in the back of your throat.

Imagine how much blood there was when Jared Hopworth attacked the institute. We know the boneturner is capable of removing bones with no blood at all but why would he when what he wants to cause is fear? He says that they undid the institute staff for parts, so I'd say they took a hell of a lot more than bones.

That's not to mention Melanie's attack with the knife, God knows how much blood Jared and his "perfect" friends had in their eldritch bodies, but if that knife hurt I'm willing to bet that blood was spilled. A lot of blood.

There's something uncanny about a place where something that awful's happened. Something in the foundations of the place. In a place with a history as messy as the institute I'm sure there was always something on the air, but that amount of bloodshed never really fades.

Even if you can't see or smell it I think there's something in the soul that knows it. Growing up there was a small park near where I lived, I always knew of it, walked past it, but never once had any desire to go near it. I don't know if I avoided it, but I never wanted to go into it. I found out a few years back that a girl died there. I won't go into detail but it was the kind of death that leaves that mark, and when I did eventually end up in that park the weight in the air was palpable.

I wonder if Jon could feel that sense of something when he came back to the institute after his coma. Does otherworldly sight stretch into the realms of the metaphysical? Could he see the residual fear of an entity so different to his own lingering in dark corners and clinging to his coworkers? Or could he simply sense it, that slight wrongness that would be so easy to attribute to being away for so long.

Jon didn't get a warm welcome, and perhaps he returned to a place that didn't even feel like the prison it'd been before. There's a comfort in the horrors we face daily, and even positive changes can make it feel even worse than it did before. The behaviour of his friends changed so much, and somehow so did the behaviour of his workplace.

It begs the question, is it better to know or to be oblivious? To be blind or to seek knowledge relentlessly? That feeling, that slight instinct that something happened here, there's something to know; how could one bear that after six months of knowing nothing real at all? Jon didn't know about the attack, and him knowing didn't help, but did he feel it? Was it there in that sea of knowledge the whole time but he couldn't bring himself to reach out and grasp it?

Because the thing with blood is that it lingers, and once you smell it, it never really goes away.

[badolmen]

Morbidly fascinated by the insight I have into the college republicans’ prayer priorities. Don’t get me wrong having a discord channel specifically for prayer requests is already an interesting social experiment sandbox (what do you consider worth asking others to pray for? what are you willing to share in that regard? how do you frame your desires versus your submission to the will of God?) but add in the fact that many of these Catholics are so far removed from the Church that they actively hold heresies? Captivating stuff.

For example, re: divestment protests from the Palestinian Coalition on campus. As shaken as I was I made a note to include in my prayer request an intention for those arrested as well as for the law enforcement who arrested them. This is an inherently neutral request at face value - my intentions for the arrested is unstated (charges dropped and recovery physically and emotionally from the police brutality they were subject to during the arrests) as are my intentions for the police (quit your job quit your job quit your job open your eyes see what you are doing be a better person please).

Contrast this with a CR’s prayer request in response to some graffiti criticizing the university’s refusal to divest found this morning focusing on a) the groundskeepers who have to clean up the paint but also…b) the ‘historic’ building itself? (The front door and stairs are concrete and particle board installed as early as the 80s if I had to guess. There was no structural damage, just graffiti.) They had no concern or intentions for the soul of the perpetrator. Just, absolutely enthralls me to peek inside their skulls and see white supremacy rattling around in there like a marble in a pinball machine. You really live like this?

[transingthoseformers]

Nahhhh because I've been thinking about this

I've been wondering about Sunder's past at the Institute (or at the least the New Institute) because he's a mnemosurgeon, naturally speaking he just has to have a past involved with shady shit before the war. There is very little in regards to his backstory on the tfwiki except regarding:

World class mnemosurgeon who flipped shit

Being the Tetragex Ripper and arrested because of his brother Sceptre and Froid

His actions lead to Sceptre's death and his deal with Froid

Unethical therapy + mnemosurgery combo shit on Scarvix until the events of "Speak, Memory: Part One"

Considering how he has autobot badges he had to have been a seemingly functional autobot for some time, and I assume that him flipping shit occurred at the LEAST partway into the war, if not relatively close to the end or shortly after the end of the war.

(of course I'm assuming he was created before the war because if he was created during it by the autobots that has so many implications considering the nature of mnemosurgery)

Now, what prompted this entire thought process I had?

Sunder having known Trepan and possibly more than just "known him"

[yulon]

there is some link between the hatred for teachers and the general lack of reading comprehension. i know it

[specialagentartemis]

Reading Euripides’s “Hecuba” and it’s fascinating that he has Agamemnon, specifically, oppose sacrificing Hecuba’s daughter Polyxena after the war to appease/honor the demanding ghost of Achilles. The Athenian leaders, Neoptolemus, and, very prominently, Odysseus, convince the Greek forces to sacrifice Polyxena; Agamemnon seems to be the major voice opposing it.

Iphigenia’s name doesn’t come up, but Agamemnon’s resistance to sacrificing Polyxena even though Achilles demands it, Polyxena’s dignity in going to her sacrifice—it all evokes Iphigenia so strongly. A sacrifice of a noble daughter to begin and to end the war. Agamemnon’s sympathy and even kindness to Hecuba after Polyxena’s death makes me think he’s thinking of his own daughter sacrificed at the beginning of the war—and after ten years of this, ending right back where he started, in a way. His sympathy to Hecuba is extremely personal. He knows. He’s sorry.