#literally need to consume every animal fact

[faeriecomplex]

going to start rewatching every kratt brothers show bc no one tells me animal facts like those two silly brothers

[nikibogwater]

Actually while I'm thinking about it, I just wanna say that the more live-action remakes Disney shlups out like shoveled manure, the more amazed I am that Cinderella (2015) exists. It breaks literally every standard of Disney's LA remakes.

It's not a shot-for-shot remake of the original 1950 animated film, though it does include small references and homages to it, but only when such things can be incorporated organically into the story.

The creators understood and respected the cross-cultural significance of the Cinderella story. They didn't want to "fix" it, or add some wacky twist to it, they just wanted to make the best possible version of the Quintessential Cinderella that they could.

Everything that could be done practically was done practically. The carriage was a real, the horses pulling it were real, and all of the other animals (with the exception of the mice and lizards, since their performance was a lot more involved than the others') were real living animals, the lizard footman and goose carriage driver were wearing prosthetics instead of just having their animal features added in post, the Fairy Godmother's dress had little LED lights sewn into it so that it would actually glow for real, the ballroom set was built by hand and included real chandeliers with more than 2000 total candles that were all actually lit for the scene, and I could go on but you get the point.

There's a ton of attention paid to little details that make the world feel real and lived in. Ella's shoes are always a little scuffed and dirty. Her farm dress is faded and wrinkled. When she breaks down and runs away to the woods, she rides her horse bareback (which, once again, was a thing Lily James actually did, no stunt-double or editing in post), because not only is that something a country girl like her would know how to do, but it also makes sense that with as upset as she is, she wouldn't want to waste time with saddling the horse. When she's dancing with the prince, it's visually obvious that he is leading her and giving her cues because of course Ella wouldn't know the latest ballroom dances, and would need him to guide her through it.

Hey speaking of dancing, y'know what else this movie does that no other LA remake has been allowed to do (at least not to this extent)? ROMANCE. Land sakes alive, this is one of the most unabashedly and yet still tastefully romantic movies I've ever seen. Ella and Kit are just oozing romantic chemistry from the moment they lock eyes for the first time. It all comes down to the fact that these two characters both have the same core values of courage and kindness, which makes their admiration for each other feel grounded and believable. Richard Madden also really sells Kit's feelings for Ella with the way his eyes go all big and soft whenever he looks at her. And don't even get me started on Lily's performance as Ella. Her quiet awe that someone as powerful as the prince loves her. The timidity and fear that she's not really worthy of that. The selfless determination to protect him from her family's cruelty, even if it means she'll never see him again, I'm just-- *banging my fist against the table and screaming into a pillow*

Absolutely god-tier costume design. No notes, I think Sandy Powell's work speaks for itself. Btw, in case you were somehow still wondering, yes, Ella's ballgown is fully practical--those layers upon layers of dreamy silk skirts are real. CG was only used to brighten up the blue color to make her stand out from the crowd more.

Wicked stepmother was allowed to actually be wicked. The movie never tries to make you sympathize with Lady Tremaine, or shift the blame off to someone else. And her villainy is given an extra layer of depth with the reveal that she is a dark reflection of Ella. They've both lost people they loved, but where Ella refused to let her grief get in the way of kindness, Lady Tremaine became utterly consumed by it. She views the death of her first husband as a sort of twisted justification for pursuing all her worst impulses. She despises Ella for her ability to flourish even while enduring terrible suffering, for being everything Lady Tremaine was either unable or flat-out refused to be.

Also Cate Blanchet absolutely SLAYS in this role. Hands-down my favorite portrayal of the wicked stepmother character.

Anyways, TLDR: Cinderella (2015) is the only Disney live-action remake that can justify its own existence and that's because it actively defies everything the LA remakes are today.

[liquidstar]

look this site really is awful for ppl with OCD so i just wanna reassure anyone that you are not Tainted Forever for consuming a piece of media with questionable content. the fact that youre able to recognize it speaks to your critical thinking skills, which is good, certain depictions should be critiqued. but you dont need to ruminate on it to the point where you begin to feel guilty for simply witnessing gross or creepy writing choices. you dont have to vindicate yourself to the fictional tumblr discourser inside your head, saying that youre now a bad person bc you watched the wrong anime. your actual response to it still matters of course, but thats that and this is this. just seeing it is neutral, you didnt commit a thought crime. its literally fine.

IF YOU ARE USING THIS POST TO ONLY FURTHER YOUR STUPID PEDANTIC BLACK-AND-WHITE DISCOURSE TO GET A "GOCHA" OVER THE OTHER SIDE YOU ARE THE PROBLEM. DON'T USE OUR DISORDER TO VINDICATE YOUR BEHAVIOR. THOUGHT CRIMES ARENT REAL BUT ACTIONS STILL MATTER. PEOPLE WITH OCD ARE CAPABLE OF THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT OUR ACTIONS AND RESPONSES, EVEN WITH INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS AND RUMINATIONS. TREATING US AS IF WE CANNOT, ONLY TO FORCE US TO USE YOUR STRINGENT UNNUANCED DISCOURSE OPINIONS ABOUT "PURITY CULTURE" (TRIGGERING TO THOSE WITH OCD) AS THE ONLY REASONABLE GUIDE DOES MORE TO EXACERBATE OUR OBSESSIONS THAN HELP US. YOU ARE THE ISSUE AS WELL. YOU ARE ALSO THE TUMBLR DISCOURSER INSIDE OUR HEADS. DO NOT USE US FOR YOUR DISCOURSE. WE ARE PEOPLE, NOT HYPOTHETICALS TO USE TO EXPLAIN IF YOUR FROZEN INCEST FANFICTION IS OKAY OR NOT. TREATING US AS IF WE CANNOT AUTONOMOUSLY HAVE OUR OWN OPINIONS ON WHEN MEDIA IS TANGIBLY HARMFUL IS ABLEIST. FORCING US TO ABIDE BY YOUR IN-GROUP'S SET OF UNEQUIVOCAL MORALS IS ABLEIST. ACTING AS THOUGH THE ONLY SOLUTION FOR US IS MINDLESS MEDIA CONSUMPTION IN WHICH "EVERY DEPICTION OF XYZ, NO MATTER HOW POORLY DONE OR EXPLOITATIVE, IS ALWAYS OKAY AND IF YOU DISAGREE YOURE ACTUALLY AN EVIL 'ANTI'" IS ABLEIST. THOSE ARE THE SAME BLACK-AND-WHITE MORALS THAT SEND US INTO OBSESSIVE SPIKES, BUT FLIPPED. A SET OF MORALS IN WHICH QUESTIONING THE IMPACT OF A PIECE OF WORK MAKES YOU AN "EVIL CONSERVATIVE PURITAN "ANTI"" DOES NOT HELP MORAL OCD.

YOU ARE THE DAMN TUMBLR DISCOUERSERS MAKING THIS SHIT WORSE FOR US! YOURE THE EXACT SAME BUT WITH FLIPPED BUZZWORDS! YOU'RE MISSING THE WHOLE DAMN POINT!

[kujoestars]

The Mechanism of Kafka's Transformation and How It Affects Him

(Crossposting my analysis/theory from Reddit. Also, warning: this post contains both anime and manga spoilers so beware if you are anime-only)

So, something that drove me nuts about the manga's version of the X-ray scene was the fact that there was literally no difference from a normal human chest x-ray. The anime THANK GOODNESS fixed that:

We finally know exactly how Kafka's core looks while he's in human form. It appears to be primarily occupying where the chambers would be with a good amount of myocardium (the heart muscles) suspending it while also continuing to function as a heart.

Notably for me, there's actually a translucent hemicircle up top there where it's supposed to connect to the aorta. In fact, you can see the core is translucent on its left (our right) side while more opaque to its right (our left).

Let me highlight it for reference I hope y'all appreciate the fact I had to do it with a mouse on MSPaint because Reddit won't save images to drafts and I can't drop images from tablet like on desktop:

It appears that Kafka's heart was fully converted and the tissue there is just a facsimile since it appears to be forming a pouch for the core to nestle in.

The anime's expansion of the scene the Mysterious Larva/Young Yoju fused with Kafka ended up perfectly tying in to this. Something I noticed was that Kafka was not actually transforming for most of it. Initially he was clutching at his throat where it entered:

Then just before the transformation started (when his eyes started glowing), he was clawing desperately at his chest:

For reference to anyone who's never studied anatomy, the mid-esophagus is actually resting against the heart, which is why the best form of imaging for the heart is a transesophageal echocardiogram (i.e. stick an ultrasound down the esophagus), which works like in this diagram:

In other words, the Larva's target was his heart and it was burrowing into it from that point. Which is consistent with where Kafka was clawing at in the shot I posted before and why after the change completed, his hand was resting just above that area:

Basically, the theory I have been saving specifically for after this episode is: Everything about Kafka's body is tied to the core.

Yes, that was obvious since we saw him regenerate his entire body from just the core, but what I'm saying here is that that the heart was the only thing the Larva was trying to fuse with. The rest of the body followed instantaneously once the heart became a core. Kaiju cores appear to be storing a lot of energy, so it would fit in with why even the initial change could happen so rapidly. It was a large burst of energy that had Kafka's cells all convert and restructure, and we even see steam coming both off and out of him here in the anime.

All future changes seem to be purely a matter of him controlling every cell in his body like individual muscles or even like how cuttlefish and octopi are able to change their appearance in an instant from muscle contractions and chromatophores.

In other words, the evidence has stacked to full OVERKILL that Kafka is truly a kaiju that can shapeshift into a human rather than the reverse like he and everyone else prefers to think.

Which leads me to my big pet theory right now: the reason Kafka is losing his ability to revert to human form is because he's becoming malnourished. I won't stack the image evidence since I've already done enough and the focus is on the core and Kafka's real biological nature now (I'll save that for a future post, lol), but it only stands to reason that if Kafka is physiologically a kaiju regardless of form, that means he has the metabolic needs of a kaiju.

He was only fine before because he had a lot of extra body fat as reserves and didn't use his kaiju form much. But after entering the Defense Force, he's been in multiple situations where he had to push himself while transformed and consume much more energy. If you pay attention to his body type, you'll notice he's been having quite a bit of weight loss.

Sure, he's been training a lot too and eating better, but following the fight with Isao, he's becoming abnormally thin. Maybe not enough for people to immediately think he needs a sandwich, but as of the latest chapters, I've noticed he's actually pretty lanky now even in kaiju form when previously Kaiju No. 8 was built like a bear.

You could argue it's just art evolution EXCEPT literally no one else had such a drastic change in body type or AT ALL. I'm pretty convinced this is an intentional transition from Matsumoto.

Whatever Kafka is eating as a human, it's not enough to sustain him long term and so his body is going into power save mode. And since his default is kaiju (why else would he constantly slip up his first few months if it wasn't actually his default form?), his body is losing its ability to shapeshift because it doesn't have the energy to. Malnourishment tends to manifest in a similarly piecemeal fashion irl, so I'm not surprised its first sign is just one spot on his hand.

Such a deceptively simple reason for the kaijufication is precisely why I'm very certain that is the cause. Kafka has a lot of issues with loving and taking care of himself. And this series is all about subverting tropes in favor of common sense. It's not some "inner demon" trying to take over (the Larva actually only did that once because Kafka was both in danger and refusing to fight back what it perceived as another daikaiju); Kafka just isn't taking care of himself as usual!

And there you have it, folks. Finally, a clear breakdown of what exactly the Larva did, how the transformations work, and why the kaijufication may not be as scary as everyone thinks. Or rather....not in the way they think. Someone please feed that kaiju properly!

[tgcg]

part 1 of something specific

TG: oh my god you get it

CG: OF COURSE I FUCKING DO, DAVE. I’LL ALLOW MYSELF CREDIT FOR ONE GOOD THING, AND THAT’S THE FACT THAT I KNOW HOW TO CONSUME MEDIA CORRECTLY.

TG: you understand me

TG: so many damn times ive tried to turn john over on this business and he doesnt listen

TG: like you dont need to be gay to see how naruto and sasuke are the romance of the fuckin century man its not rocket science dare i say it is elementary level 

CG: IT’S BASIC READING COMPREHENSION, I AGREE.

CG: I’M NOT ABOUT TO EVEN *TRY* TO UNDERSTAND EARTH’S BIASES TO CERTAIN FORMS OF ROMANCE, BUT IS IT LITERALLY JUST BECAUSE THEY’RE BOTH GUYS?

TG: i dunno i dont think hes like

TG: homophobic or something

TG: i think if anyone is the number one ally to anything its probably john yknow hed have your back bro if you were all up and being bisexual on earth and people werent scrambling hand over foot away from you because youre an alien 

TG: but just because you were that 

TG: thing

TG: bisexual

CG: YEAH, THAT THING.

TG: he wouldnt care man

TG: he wouldnt give a shit or fuck about it probably

CG: SPEAKING OF LABELS THOUGH!

TG: aw man are you about to pull out the quadrant shiz on my boys

TG: are you gonna tell me naruto and sasuke got a hate on for each other or something cus thats 

CG: OH JEGUS NO, DAVE. THAT WOULD BE COMPLETELY MISSING THE POINT OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP’S GROWTH AND THEIR ENTIRE DYNAMIC, NEVERMIND THE PURPOSE OF THE STORY ITSELF.

TG: alright lay it on me shercock homos ill be your watson watching you with the big twinkling eyes of a newborn fawn

TG: sleuth this shit like you were there when kishimoto invented it

TG: his alien understudy rises from the caverns of anime hell clutching the scroll of one universally understood truth and with his otaku disciples there to listen he takes a deep breath and delivers his groundquaking sermon to the masses

TG: jesus take the mic

CG: I’M CLUTCHING THE MICROPHONE IN MY CALLOUSED AND BONE-DRY TOUCHSTUMPS, BODY WEARY AND ON THE BRINK OF CAVING IN ON ITSELF, BUT I SPEAK WITH A STALWART DETERMINATION THAT WILL RING TRUE THROUGHOUT THE COSMOS FOR SWEEPS TO COME. THEY WILL WRITE MY FUCKING WORDS IN THE STARS, DAVE. IT’LL BE ALL THEY HAVE LEFT OF ME EVENTUALLY, BECAUSE I’LL PREACH IT HARD AND FEVERISH UNTIL THIS MORTAL COIL DECIDES IT’S FINALLY HAD ENOUGH OF PUTTING MY PATHETIC HALF-CORPSE THROUGH THE RINGER BY MAKING ME GET UP EVERY MORNING LIKE IT’S SOME KIND OF JOKE, AND FINALLY LETS ME KEEL OVER. THAT, DAVE, IS MY CRUCIFIXION. IT REPEATS ITSELF, OUROBOROS-LIKE, EVERY CYCLE, AND MAY WELL LAST UNTIL THE COLLAPSE OF PARADOX SPACE ITSELF SINCE THEY APPARENTLY FIND IT SO INCREDIBLY HILARIOUS. THEY BETTER MARTYR THE FUCK OUT OF ME. YOU BETTER PERSONALLY SEE TO IT THAT I AM MARTYRED TO *SHIT*.

TG: done and done

CG: THANK YOU. WHERE WAS I? OH RIGHT. NARUTO SHIP ANALYSIS.

[kiame-sama]

This is now stuck in my mind with Huntsman Spider Rook (+Fun fact about Spiders)

Would Rook offer his silk to Vil and Crewel to make outfits for Reader? (The non sticky webbing) since it will probably be a bit hard to find outfits and clothes that fit her body without extra stuff for other limbs (That she clearly doesn’t have, like feathers, wings, tail, animal ears, horns, etc)

Fun fact, Spiders will recycle their webbing by eating it, because of this I feel like Rook has no problem asking back the outfits he, Vil and/or Crewel made for Reader if they’re damaged or to make her new outfits for the colder/hotter seasons

Especially for undergarments, since his webbing is very soft yet durable (if he could he would be begging on his knees to Reader to let him fix those, as he’ll make new ones that will have intricate or simple designs depending on her taste)

Warnings: Rook being Rook (a beautiful stalking creep), Drider Rook is way too into the clothing, yandere, yandere behavior, mature themes, Rook can eat his own silk creations, Vil enables Rook's behavior,

~~~~

This is a problem they are currently running into. Many tailors and clothes designers have plenty of styles to allow for wings, tails, leg shape, body type, but the Human has none of those things. The closest they can find is for Shadow-folk, Selkies, and other similar types. Specialized stores like that require going in to get things fitted and they refuse to allow anyone outside of the school to get that close to the Human unless they are vetted by all Staff and Housewardens. This means Rook, Divus, and Vil have to do the fitting themselves.

Rook has been making cloth out of his silk for years at this point and Vil has quite a bit already on hand. They will absolutely be pulling the Human out of classes to take their measurements and to see how well it fits. Naturally, Divus will insist the Human gets last say in how something is designed as it is clothing for them and not for someone else. Vil is quite alright with this, but he will insist on making little details and adding some flare. All three will be adding their own flare, from Divus adding black and white boarders or liners, to Vil adding a few ruffles or his own feathers, Rook's flare is the garment itself as he is the source of the silk and the one who literally made the fabric.

Rook is almost drooling at the simple idea of the Human wearing clothes made out of his personal silk. He will absolutely beg to repair any clothing but he will be especially keen to 'repair' undergarments. Oddly enough, every time he gets a pair of undergarments to fix he will invariably say they were unsalvageable even if it was only a split seam. He is absolutely consuming these undergarments as they are his own silk and he uses dyes he can ultimately consume simply because he had been hoping for such a delicacy. He doesn't need to eat it to make more silk, but he can so he will.

He will save the crotch of the undergarments for last just because he is desperate to memorize and retain the taste. Rook will make more undergarments with various designs and shapes, usually making them with the intent of them ripping at the seams after several uses just so he can get more. Vil is not only aware of Rook doing this, but continues to allow him to do it so long as a few of those undergarments make their way into Vil's room. Where he may occasionally roll his eyes and scold Rook for being so desperate- hard not to tease the Drider after finding him stuffing his face with the garments- he knows he isn't really any better than Rook given what he does with them.

[myfandomrealitea]

Honestly I'm getting really tired of how people treat celebrities.

People act like they're circus animals that exist solely to dance for their entertainment, and that being a celebrity means they don't deserve to have any boundaries or dignity or privacy.

Like I always see posts going "Oh boo hoo people are being mean to the poor celebrity, maybe they can wipe away their tears with their money while the rest of us starve :(" and it's like what the fuck are you talking about.

Them being famous and having a lot of money (although a lot of celebrities aren't actually super rich, which no one ever wants to acknowlege) doesn't give people the right to treat them the way they do.

Being rich means nothing if people are stalking you and breaking into your house and sending you unhinged love letters.

Being rich means nothing if people are taking pictures of your fucking children so they can sell the pictures to magazines.

Being rich means nothing if people are following you every time you're in public (or even in private!) so they can try and take a picture of you doing something embarassing or scandalous.

I'm honestly surprised there aren't more cases of celebrities having mental breakdowns and losing their shit due to the amount of harassment, stalking, and invasion of privacy they face.

Leave these goddamn people alone for fuck's sake.

I always see people saying:

"Its what you sign up for when you become famous."

And I just. No. So much no. No?? Non??? Nada.

Like yes when you're famous a certain amount of your privacy erodes because you become a public figure. Its in the name. But the way celebrities are literally treated like nothing more than creatures that exist for us to consume and observe and dictate and judge is fucking insane. We learned nothing from Britney Spears, apparently.

Celebrities have become such a disconnected reality from 'general living' that we are so fucking out of touch with the fact that they're literally just human beings. Eminem made a song about it and people just laughed it off as a great musical plotline and 'haha funny Stan lets turn it into fandom culture slang.' One Direction had to hide in unmarked trade vans and book out entire airports (which then got hacked) just to try to travel without getting mobbed. Toby Maguire got branded as 'rude and aggressive' for yelling at paparazzi who literally surrounded his car and blocked him from leaving a car park so they could take photos of him.

Celebrities should not have to take out contracts and protection orders and press gags just so they can raise their children in peace or take them on a fucking walk. Celebrities should not have to cover tattoos honoring their dead mother because some clown who thinks it'll turn into a Y/N moments replicates it without any care for its actual meaning. Celebrity nudes and sex tapes get hacked and leaked and the celebrity is simultaneously blamed for it and sexualised to absolute hell for it.

"Sources" are constantly selling-literally selling- private information about people and their lives and families and its just?? Considered so fucking normal?? Imagine having a miscarriage and finding out three days later that your co-worker sold that information to a news outlet and its now front-page news globally?

Imagine organising a secret, small wedding so you can have that special day with the person you love without it being ruined and you find out the fucking priest told the Daily Mail it was happening so your special day consists of hoards of photographers yelling at you while you try to speak your vows?

Honestly I believe we do need stricter regulations and laws regarding this kind of thing. I firmly believe in the freedom of photography in public spaces but I also firmly believe that should absolutely not cover paparazzi literally stalking people, mobbing them, blocking them in alleyways and parking lots, using telescopic lenses to take photographs inside their houses, ect. It simply shouldn't.

People need to start imagining themselves and their family members in these types of situations and recognise that its fucking inhumane.

[scuttlingcrab]

"The doublet is a magical item, so it can fit and mould to Raphael’s body no matter his form or temper." Now I'm just picturing Raphael transforming in anger while wearing the doublet and his rage is momentarily stopped when he realizes that it transformed with him and wasn't even singed.

Like, I could be incredibly angry with someone, but if I suddenly realized that my dress had pockets in it I know darn well that I'd need to at least stop and take a moment to marvel at that discovery before even thinking about continuing on with my anger. 😅

I was literally working on something similar when you sent your message! I've attached the ask below I was initially responding to. Thank you for your message anon and hope you enjoy! x

"Also, the idea of Raphael showing off his new clothes is just- It just tickles me! I can see him preening and flaunting like a peacock because of Tav's gift. I'd honestly read a sequel piece about that, if you want to write it. I've kinda already fallen in love with the whole idea of a luxury magic tailor Tav that the initial prompt fill and response has created as well as that Tav's potential dynamic with Raphael (and other characters *looking at Gale and his sewing needle quip*) and would absolutely be down to read more of that from you! 👀"

Summary: Raphael is caught off guard by his recent gift from Tav, so he decides to pay his little mouse a visit.

Notes: Read A Perfect Fit, which inspired this continuation.

Link to my other work in the Devil's Archive.

Dressed to Kill 

Raphael stomped through the halls of the House of Hope, shedding his mortal skin. The doublet didn’t set fire when Raphael transformed, instead, it morphed with his growing size. The silk fabric soothed his ridged body, feeling like a warm embrace. Raphael suppressed a scream. Wretched mortal! The debtors scurried out of his path like rats, seeking the shadows for an ounce of solace from the blistering rage. 

He passed an open window and jolted to a halt. The blood-red light of Avernus caught the designs of his doublet, causing it to glimmer like diamonds. During his shift, the colour of his clothing changed. It now had a dark golden shimmer, the infernal embroidery a deep blue. He extended his arm, admiring the sleeve as he twisted it only slightly, and watched as the adornment reflected tiny devilish patterns onto the marble floors. The decorations moved, as if dancing. Another interesting, subtle detail.

Staring at these animations, Raphael’s breath calmed, his mind cleared. He stood taller, his head never held so high. Abruptly he spotted one of the debtors staring at him from his peripheral and lowered his hand, slowly turning to face them. Fire burned in Raphael’s eyes as he hissed, barring his sharp teeth. The debtor screeched before scurrying off to continue their meaningless eternal task. 

“If I catch just one more incompetent lackey idling about, I will impale your sorry souls on trees and leave you to rot. You are all interchangeable. Do not forget that.”

Raphael watched as the last debtor fled from his sight. He will not be caught off guard again. No. In fact… he will pay that creature a visit. 

–

Raphael materialised at the creature's camp in a swirl of flames and sparks, returning to his mortal disguise. 

The camp was quiet at this hour, the creatures asleep, separated into their individual makeshift tents. And what a ghastly camp it was, third-rate, at best. Miscellaneous equipment littered every corner, books lay discarded, shoddy clothes hung drying on trees, and the animals… When did these mortals domesticate owlbears? Savages.  

He slowly approached Tav’s tent, nestled towards the lake's shoreline. He parted the flap with an index finger and peeked inside. The creature was fast asleep, sharing her tent with that monstrosity Karlach. 

He watched them sleeping, so defenceless. He perked up at the thought. If he was so inclined, he could have easily ended their lives, consumed their souls before the tadpoles defiled them; all it would take is a snap of his fingers…

“Rise and shine, little mouse.” Raphael purred. 

Tav sprang up from her bed roll, clumsily readying a dagger from her sleeve. She held it out towards Raphael, one eye still closed, as she fought off the interrupted slumber. 

Karlach simply turned over in her bedding, yawning and stretching like a cat. She slowly opened her eyes, sitting upright when she spotted Raphael standing at the entrance.

He smirked in response, placing a hand on his hip.

“What the hell is this creep doing here?”

“Good evening to you too, Karlach. I am simply checking in on my prospective clients.”

Raphael bowed deeply, making sure to be as flamboyant as possible in his gesture.

“In the middle of the bloody night? Fuck off, devil.” 

Raphael slowly straightened himself, adjusting his sleeves. He aimed his cuffs towards the campfire, taking care to make sure the lighting was just right to highlight the devilish decorations. 

“Tut, tut, Karlach, language. If I wanted to hear such hideous sounds I’d speak with a lemure.”

Karlach leapt to her feet, the rickety infernal engine in her chest glowing brighter as she stared daggers at him.

“Karlach, please…” 

Tav raised a hand at Karlach, putting away her weapon. She rubbed away the rest of the sleep and focused on Raphael. Her face instantly lit up when she caught sight of his doublet. 

“You’re… wearing it?” Tav whispered. She brought her hands to her mouth, attempting to hide her flushed cheeks. 

“But of course! How could I resist such a delicious gift? It’s not often a devil like myself comes across a mortal with such curious tastes. Your attention to detail is…”

Raphael dramatically clasped his hands together, as if in a prayer. Yes, indeed. Thank the Gods up above for damning these poor creatures and sending them straight into his claws. 

“Superb!” 

“Hells, what have you done?” Karlach groaned, rolling her eyes. “I told you it was a bad idea.”

Tav gave Karlach a sidelong glance, narrowing her eyes. Raphael’s smile grew, devouring the creature’s disapproval and embarrassment. Almost as scrumptious as a soul.

“You are quite the seamstress. What else have you been creating on your adventures, hmm? I wonder, what would be the price for another item such as this? Perhaps we can come to some sort of agreement?” 

Tav’s mouth hung open at his words.

“I-I-uh, didn’t think that far ahead. Let me sleep on it.”

“Don’t keep me waiting, little mouse. You had my curiosity, but now… you have my full attention.”

Raphael raised his arms out wide, like a peacock strutting their finest feathers. He laughed as he surrounded himself in infernal flames. He had truly stumbled upon his greatest prize, his secret weapon to uniting the Nine Hells. Raphael would reach his target soon, that was for certain, but oh, oh yes... he would look hellishly chic in his pursuits. He would turn heads, devils and mortals alike.

[atopvisenyashill]

Hiiiii what are your theories on what post-resurrection Jon with be like?

So I AM curious if he’s gonna be a bit more animalistic. I went back to look at Varamyr and I feel like Varamyr is a weirdo but he doesn’t act like an animal, despite spending a lot of time as an animal. Now you can contrast this to some of the Starklings who will do shit like growl and howl and stuff, and Jojen in fact warns against staying an animal for too long.

“Bran the boy and Summer the wolf. You are two, then?"

"Two," he sighed, "and one." He hated Jojen when he got stupid like this. At Winterfell he wanted me to dream my wolf dreams, and now that I know how he's always calling me back.

"Remember that, Bran. Remember yourself, or the wolf will consume you. When you join, it is not enough to run and hunt and howl in Summer's skin."

But the thing is - it’s Rickon Bran and Arya doing that. Bran & Arya are barely old enough to be self aware and Rickon is a literal toddler (I think all the Starklings refer to him as “the baby” not as in “the youngest” but as in he is TINY still). Jon is sixteen. I do wonder if he adjusts better simply because he’s older. But to flip back again…Varamyr is our only reference and Jojen explicitly warns against it. So will Jon have a temper? Will he growl, go nonverbal when emotional, like Rickon does? Will he howl at the moon like Bran and Arya? Will other people find him unsettling? Not in the “why is this grown man acting like a wolf” way but in that way that actual wolves are unsettling….you know the stories about how you KNOW if you’ve seen a wolf because they’re fuck off huge, they LOOK like predators, and your instincts tell you “this thing can kill me” in a way they don’t when you see a regular dog? What if he’s just unnerving to be around?

I do wonder about his physical look as well. Every person who ~comes back from the dead~ still bares the scars they got while dying. Beric & LSH’s injuries seem to healing human slow - that is to say, if they hadn’t received killing blows, Cat’s vocal chords would be healing at about the rate we see LSH start to regain speech, and Beric’s various cuts are scarring & healing at a normal rate. Bran is paralyzed. Drogo is…all of that. Will he face some issues with his body because the wounds are still healing? Will he have some more stiffness in his limbs, like the way his burnt hand has problems? I don’t really know how he would pick up the red eyes and white hair from ghost - Beric, LSH, Bran, even Drogo, they don’t suddenly change eye or hair color or something, and Brynden was BORN albino it’s not like his magic made him that way later - but I’m ngl I still kind of hope he’ll have the red eyes, I think it’s neat. He doesn’t need white hair tho I think that’s overkill.

When it comes to his priorities, I think we're going to see a huge shift. I know everyone ragged on the show for just having Jon be like "yeah i'm peacing out bye" bc there's going to be more hubbub than that but I do think Jon is going to feel incredibly jaded when it comes to the Night's Watch. I always come back to his confrontation with Maester Aemon and the fact that Aemon is distressed by his choice to not attempt to help Elia and her babies...

Maester Aemon sighed. “Have you heard nothing I’ve told you, Jon? Do you think you are the first?” He shook his ancient head, a gesture weary beyond words. “Three times the gods saw fit to test my vows. Once when I was a boy, once in the fullness of my manhood, and once when I had grown old. By then my strength was fled, my eyes grown dim, yet that last choice was as cruel as the first. My ravens would bring the news from the south, words darker than their wings, the ruin of my House, the death of my kin, disgrace and desolation. What could I have done, old, blind, frail? I was helpless as a suckling babe, yet still it grieved me to sit forgotten as they cut down my brother’s poor grandson, and his son, and even the little children …” Jon was shocked to see the shine of tears in the old man’s eyes. ...“Once. So you see, Jon, I do know … and knowing, I will not tell you stay or go. You must make that choice yourself, and live with it all the rest of your days. As I have.” His voice fell to a whisper. “As I have …”

There’s nothing he could have done and he knows it. AND YET. How do you justify to yourself hiding out at the Wall in safety while children of your house are slaughtered? How do you make your peace with it? You can’t! Love is the death of duty!! Aemon doesn’t ever make peace with it! He spends the last days of his life hating himself for being so old, being unable to help Dany, reaching out for the brother he’s long lost in his dreams. I think being murdered by his men, after months of arguing with them, of trying to get them to put aside their shitty little beef with the wildlings and focus on the real threats to their safety, and the knowledge that “Arya” is ALIVE OUT THERE, it’s all going to massively change his priorities. When you factor in the girl in gray turning out to be Sansa (don’t boo me i’m right!!)…I don’t think he’s going to hem and haw about being a brother of the night’s watch, I think he’s taking his shit, and he’s getting the fuck out of dodge.

But when it comes to his state of mind…again, I’ve come around to the idea that Jon is going to be resurrected 100% due to Northern type magic, and not anything Melisandre is doing. I’m willing to be wrong on this one btw, I do think there’s still a shot some funky magic brings him back but I think with all the build up to Jon actively warging, to accepting his magic, and opening his third eye, is in fact building up not just to Jon spending a long time in Ghost while his body is found and resurrected, but that his body will HEAL while he’s not in it the way Bran’s does, and he comes back to an injured but on the mend body.

If he’s waiting around for his body to heal though, he’s going to be spending a hot minute inside Ghost & greenseeing. Possibly longer than Bran did. I think like Bran, he’ll have his own mini vision quest as he wanders and sleeps in ghost’s body - and I think he’s going to find out Bran is still alive. See, Bran figures out that Robb is dead through a green dream, then buries the memory-

The dream he'd had . . . the dream Summer had had . . . No, I mustn't think about that dream. He had not even told the Reeds, though Meera at least seemed to sense that something was wrong. If he never talked of it maybe he could forget he ever dreamed it, and then it wouldn't have happened and Robb and Grey Wind would still be . . .

And we know Summer is aware of his scattered siblings, dwelling on them often. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that the connection works the other way. We also know Bran is still dwelling on his family, with his weirwood dreams focusing on Ned. Similar to Aemon, similar to Jon’s whole story, Bran struggles in balancing his love for his family with what he feels is his duty. Not only that but imo there’s a lot of connections between Jon and Bran when it comes to magic. Jon is the only character we see saying goodbye to Bran, which has always stuck out to me. Bran also attempts to open Jon’s third eye before Robb (presumably - i think if bran was talking to robb in his dream, he would have brought it up) Sansa, Arya, or Rickon (again, presumably).

It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother's face. Had his brother always had three eyes?

Not always, came the silent shout. Not before the crow…. Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him.

And Bran has that near miss where he and Jon are in the same places at the same time, with Bran running into Sam & Gilly. Additionally, we get all those scenes with Mormont’s crow doing weird stuff and we have no idea if it’s Bloodraven or Bran - it’s very possible Bran At Some Point In Time has been trying to get Jon’s attention for a long time.

All of that to say I think there’s a build up to Jon and Bran being the first Starklings to reunite, but not in body, just in mind! While trapped in Ghost’s body greendreaming about his thought to be dead brother, Bran will have the opportunity to jumpstart Jon’s magic the way his was, and Jon will realize Bran is still alive - potentially even exchanging important information about the Others, Winterfell, and Jon’s real parents…Both boys return to their bodies, turn to the people they’ve sworn their lifetimes to and go “actually fuck this shit and fuck you too” and try to leave.

Try, being the operative word here, of course.

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.228 thoughts

[Father Time Looks GNC AF]

(Topics: character analysis - Feng/Time/Yusai, thematic analysis - age/unity, predictions - Justice/War)

As I predicted, we've moved away from Gina vs. Change to focus on someone else's capstone; in this case, Shen and Mui's. Also as I predicted, Feng makes his reappearance to both get his own capstone and to provide narrative context for Shen's

The best part about this development, though, is that it didn't wrap up in one chapter! In fact, this chapter was almost entirely exposition, discussing the thematic relevance of each of the Master Rule's to God's game, with only a small portion of it furthering the cast's narratives

In other words, this chapter slowed down the pacing! I predicted that each Master Rule fight and their associated character developments would happen in one chapter each to time the ending for January, so if one of those fights is taking two or more chapters?

It's definitely possible that the Xiang family story is just taking priority over, say, Yusai's story, and every chapter that this one gets is being taken from another, but at the moment that's just pessimistic thinking and doesn't mesh with how much attention Tozuka is giving the individual fights. Admittedly, skipping straight to Phase 3 for Justice without seeing the rest of the fight is a bad sign for Yusai, but Tozuka did the same thing for Billy/Tella's fight with War, which he's definitely going to delve more into, so I'm not willing to give up on Yusai just yet

Plus, the mere fact that Justice made it to Phase 3 gives us a little insight into how the fight's been going so far

Make My Monster Grow

Generally, UMAs enter their next Phases by consuming their Rule: Spoil ate his spoiled zombies, Summer ate fuel for his fireworks, Beast absorbed the souls of animals, Language accumulated languages in her game. Yet somehow, it went over my head at first that Time was literally stealing Shen's time; as Shen aged, Time got younger

This also retroactively explained for me what happened to Change last week - her shape was changed by Gina cutting her in half, so she was able to take on and incorporate that change into herself. She basically said that herself, but again, it didn't quite sink in

In War's case, all we need to know is that the battle up to now was violent. Every attack, every bullet fired, every drop of blood spilled empowered War. We know that they're fighting, so we didn't really need to see the battle that led up to War powering up to understand why it happened or how that theme ties into Billy and Tella's characters once we get to their chapter(s)

Justice is pretty similar, in that all we need to understand is that Yusai is fighting with her own sense of justice. The more she does what she thinks is right, the more determined she is to uphold her honor, the stronger Justice becomes. Just like Yusai nearly allowed herself to starve to death to save her village when Undraw manifested, she allowed herself to come to harm by trapping Justice's blade in her body. For the greater good, Yusai is always willing to sacrifice herself - that is her justice. She may not have gotten a lot of analysis or depth so far, but that bit of characterization can easily be wrapped up in one more chapter

At the very least, justice has been such a major theme this whole time that I would be shocked if we don't get a full chapter dedicated to the fight, even if Julia or someone else comes in to back Yusai up and takes some of the spotlight

However, that's something we can worry about later - this week we're focusing on a different recurring theme

Doesn't Work Like it Used To

Once again, Tozuka is revisiting one of his old favorites: Age as Proof of a Life Lived

In this case, the progenitor of the very concept, Time, is espousing a very different take on the matter. As he says, even without killing them, time makes people ineffectual and necessitates that they let someone else take up their mantle. Indeed, no matter how much experience you accumulate, how many memories you make, your body will one day betray you, and what once came to you with ease will demand a great deal of effort and pain

Whereas the rest of the series has focused on the value of time, how every previous moment builds up and contributes to the present self, Time's philosophy is the opposite, that every previous moment was spent and lost on the way to the present. Where the rest of the cast would appreciate the wisdom of age, Time considers the aged to have run out of value, finite like sand in an hourglass

But like every other Rule so far, his thinking is hypocritical and stops short of the whole truth

Like a Fine Wine

While Time is right that a person's time is a limited resource, that they will one day lose the capacity to perform and need to step aside for younger generations to take their place, he's completely wrong about the elderly lacking purpose

He tells Shen and Mui to give up because they're aging, that soon they'll become elderly, but even by his metrics, they hadn't yet. They still had time left to make whatever difference they could. They weren't idling and wasting away the time they had left, they were fighting tooth and nail to defeat the enemy in front of them, and what did it get them?

It gave Feng enough time to figure out how to fight Time

In a blatant reversal of roles, the currently much younger Feng is being entrusted with the battle because Shen is no longer capable of fighting, and the lessons that came with Shen aging will be applied by Feng. The young learn from the old; that is the purpose of the elderly, not to stand aside for the young, but to teach them how to reach old age

And that is the truth that Feng has learned as well

A Garden You'll Never Get to See

Feng's character has always been centered around achieving peak individual strength; besting others with his own power, being objectively superior when compared to others, and continuously improving without ever stagnating or regressing. However, no matter how strong Feng became physically, there was always one factor that he was missing that would prevent him from becoming the strongest: strength of character

Feng is a man who's defined by fear and insecurity; the fear of becoming lesser, of being alone, of being forgotten. In L100, Feng lamented that he had lost his power in his age, that his finite sand had drained away and he'd become ineffectual, so he desperately searched for a way to refill the hourglass and regain what he'd lost. He didn't value the years he'd spent refining his art, he resented the toll that those years collected from his body; Feng's time was not an investment, it was a tax, and one he would see returned no matter what

L101 Feng, on the other hand, never paid that tax at all. Instead, he watched as everyone around him who he had once considered an equal paid it. He watched as they slowly faded away, replaced with new faces he didn't recognize. But the truly painful thing wasn't that the people he knew vanished: it was that the last thing he saw from each of them was a smile. The tax man came to collect, and they gave their time happily? Unfathomable. All of their efforts had amounted to nothing, none of them could compete with him anymore, and now they won't even last long enough to see their pupils possibly match him. What the hell do they have to be happy about?!

But that's exactly what they have to be happy about. They couldn't compete anymore, but they knew that their pupils could, and that even if they failed to prove a match for Feng, they would surely be able to raise the next generation to do so. They were aging, yes, but they used what time they had left to pass on everything they'd learned to the youth, investing their remaining value in someone else

And they could do that because they had the strength of character to accept their fate

They were unafraid of the future and secure in the knowledge that everything they had worked for would be passed on; that their legacies would only become greater, would be shared, would be remembered. Though their bodies may die, their souls would live on through their techniques passed down through the generations

Feng learned this lesson firsthand when he died fighting Language, that his eventual death would not simply be the cessation of his life, but the impetus for further growth in his legacy. The memory of Feng will have its own unique impact on Shin Hakkyoku's development, but that will never come to be so long as Feng himself lingers; if he doesn't entrust it to someone else, then just as he feared and just like his unaging body, his art will stagnate

Therefore, the key to strength is not found in the individual, but in the collective, which happens to also be the secret to winning God's game

Life is Not a Single Player Game

As Time says, all of the Master Rules past Death were created to incentivize individualism; Changing people to be different from each other, giving individuals greater or lesser Luck, giving individuals different senses of Justice, Wars over protecting self-interest, etc. Sun created all of these Rules to introduce hardship and strife among humanity, instructing each of them to use their Rules to make humanity suffer

In other words: when individuals act solely in their own interest, all of humanity suffers

The Rules force humanity to act as individuals, a house divided amongst itself, so that they will not band together and ruin Sun's fun

And Feng fell for it

In L100, elder Feng gave into the panic that Time induces and came to resent that his time had passed. In L101, young Feng panicked as he watched everyone else's time pass. In both cases, he clung desperately to his own strength, either to prove that he hadn't lost it or to justify that he was the only one who still had it. In both cases, he was willing to throw away everyone else, every connection he had, to hold onto the individuality he had built for himself, for once everyone else was gone, that individuality was all he had at all

But that's not how the game is played

The Quests have participant requirements for a reason. They incentivize the Negators to work together, to band together to stand against enemies and challenges they have no hope of defeating alone

Even the Rules don't exist in a vacuum. Every Rule is tied together, a delicate balancing act that literally helps the world turn, like Summer's heat and Winter's cold, and the same is true of Negators. Undead and Unluck synergize amazingly well; Unseen's true power comes from borrowing the eyes of friends; Unfair only exists in the context of others

Sun's side of the bet was that humanity could never reach the Gods, and to prove it he gave them every reason to squabble amongst themselves. Luna's side was that humanity could, and gave them the tools to come together and put aside their differences; to form a Union

Of all of the Negators we've met, only two have resisted that Union: Feng and Ruin. But even Ruin has Blood and Shadow; he never needed to learn the lesson of unity, he already had, he just applied it to the UMA instead of humanity. But Feng? He was the final holdout, the only one who still didn't want to believe that the path of the individual was wrong

But now he knows. Maybe he met the previous Unfades when he died and learned from them what kind of legacy he was hoarding for himself, or maybe Fuuko's words finally sank in after seeing Shen and Nico's respective growth. It doesn't really matter what prompted it, what matters is Feng has accepted the truth and has chosen to stop clinging to himself and start giving of himself to those next in line

And of course, the one he chooses to give his spot to is one he acknowledged as a worthy rival

Passing the Torch

You can actually see the moment when Mui inherits Unfade: as Shen and Mui declare that they will always protect each other, Mui's panel has the subtle but unmistakable black smoke that signals the manifestation of a Negator ability. From that point on, once we see that Shen has aged to a wrinkled and spindly-armed geriatric, we don't see Mui's face again until the reveal. This will probably carry over a little better in animated form, as Shen will likely be shown aging in real time, but that was the moment that Mui ceased to age

From a lore perspective, this moment is fascinating because not only does it show that one person can be granted a different Negator ability between Loops, but also that the holder of an ability doesn't need to die to pass it on! Some folks believe that Feng had actually already given Unfade to Mui when he died in the Language fight, but again, we literally see Mui manifest it during this fight, and Feng himself is established as one of the foremost masters of the soul, so it's not hard to imagine that he learned how to transfer that aspect of the soul into someone else

From a narrative perspective, this completes Feng's character arc, as not only has he finally embraced his age and allowed someone else to carry on his legacy, but he's also done so through someone he once tried to kill for the sake of his own growth. In L100, Feng tried to use Mui's death to inspire growth in Shen, which would in turn allow Feng to become stronger, but now it's the opposite. Now Feng is risking his own life to make Mui stronger, so that she and Shen can pass on the strength that Feng had cultivated together

Every facet of Feng's character that had once been so antithetical to all of UU's themes has now completely flipped. By giving Unfade to Mui, Feng ensures that she won't lose any more of the strength he saw in her, and knows that through her connection with Shen, the both of them will become stronger as a collective, which will allow them to overcome Time, Feng's true eternal enemy

Feng may or may not die during this fight, but either way, he is going to become old again, as he was always meant to. His time will be taken from him, and his body will fail him. But his sand is not simply flowing away, a tax paid for his own life; each grain is being laid carefully and thoughtfully in place to build upon the last, to create something bigger and better

Time views life as an hourglass, draining until empty, but as I said, Time is wrong. Life is not an hourglass, it's a sandcastle. It may not be pretty, and it won't last forever, but it will have been built all the same. So long as we enjoy building it, then even once it crumbles, the memories of how we built it and who we built it with will never fade

Until next time

Let's enjoy life

[ohwormwood]

i've lost my goddamn mind: rambling on parallels in isat and frankenstein

i need to write this down so i can try and defend my ass because it sounds crazy until you read the goddamn book and suddenly IT ALL MAKES FUCKING SENSE.

[woe, spoilers be upon ye! for both isat and frankenstein of course]

for context: i am a gender studies minor. i write on queer theory for funsies. and sometimes i like to let my hyperfixations melt together like cheese. this is the result.

Siffrin and victor. it's the fucking rampant mental illness for me. i cannot stress how many times i stopped mid-chapter and went "theyre the same fucking picture". it's fucking uncanny at times. The absolute extent of their self loathing is so in tandem that it's kind of scary. Both of them, despite not being directly involved, hold the weight of the deaths of their loved ones upon themselves (even if in Siffrin's case it was temporary, the point still stands). They both love their families so dearly???? like, to the point of self destruction and death. The absolute terror of losing your family to a force you cannot control, created by your own hand???

"I often suffered my mule to lag behind, and indulged in the misery of reflection. At other times I spurred on the animal before my companions, that I might forget them, the world, and, more of all, myself." (Shelley 67) Hello???? Siffrin???? is that you

So, as you probably guessed.... Loop is the creature in this case. The foil. The reflection. the absolute anguish of being denied humanity and comfort and love but having the capacity and inclination to love a family you cannot obtain. The simultaneous scorn yet codependence upon the other half they didn't get to choose, a need for revenge but also a profound and all-consuming self-hatred and remorse??? the self-denial of love???

"my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures: to see their sweet looks turned towards me with affection" (Shelley 96) Head in fucking hands. loop watching the party. ough.

"if i cannot inspire love, i will cause fear" (Shelley 107) LIKE. MOTHERFUCKER. OUGHHH.

the fact that victor cannot fucking die for the vast majority of the story, spurned on by revenge and grief and self-loathing.... yeah act 5 siffrin...

I see this as like. the ISAT bad ending. Two Hats if loop had a lil chat with the king and went off the deep end. Or just loop, if they had no concept of their former self. if siffrin was a true frankenstein in that situation, i think that loop would definitely end up as a true version of the creature.

both siffrin and victor feeling undeserving of their family's love because of their actions

Oh here's the one that will send ppl over the edge: "or longed, with a devouring maladie du pays..." (Shelley 139) When i tell you I fucking almost yelled in the middle of work. I had to take a fucking pause. because the topic of homesickness and love for one's culture comes up a LOT in both of these. even if siffrin doesn't remember it.

Sidenote: i will forever and always hold in my heart that victor is ace. i am literally writing a fucking theoretical essay on this. I cannot explain here how much i have picked apart every allusion to this over the course of the text. it's genuinely a problem.

"You hate me; but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself." (Shelley 170) i. i cannot say anything else about this but. Loop. yeah.

something something, fallen angel motifs in both the creature and loop

the creature's overseeing of the family in the cottage makes me think a lot about how loop would have seen their family interacting with who they could have been/used to be every fucking loop. but being unable to do anything about it. and then when they DO meet them. they do not recognize them and see them as inhuman. i simply fucking cry.

Anyways to end on a lighthearted note: isa is my walton. hopelessly gay. devoted to a fucking fault. secretly holds the braincells. the most loving man on gods green earth. Sympathizer 1000. Yeah.

did i need to do this? no. does it make any logical sense? absolutely fucking not. but am i going to be thinking about this for the next 3 weeks? yes. yes i am. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[flagellant]

hey there, big fan of your posts on veganism (i’m not being ironic i genuinely am!)! would you say however that it’s fair to say that IF you have the capacity and ability to do so, you should strive to at least reduce the amount of meat/fish/dairy/etc you consume? with how much the fishing industry for example pollutes and kills and destroys biodiversity etc etc i personally think it’s a bit :// to still support the (intensive, consumerist, not-indigenous practice) industry. obviously not including cultural regional practices + culling of invasive etc etc. i hope this message doesn’t sound mean or rude or anything, god knows you get too many of those on the regular

Thank you! And yeh I will literally never (intentionally) go aggro on someone who is acting in good faith you don't gotta worry.

My problem with the idea of "If you can, reduce" is that I absolutely agree. I think that if you are able to, you should aim to shop local and eat less red meat constantly. But I personally have not really met someone who this would truly, genuinely apply to.

This is because the ability to have that level of fine control over your diet is one which automatically requires you to have an abundance of privilege in nearly every conceivable way. Less harm and working towards better solutions must be the goal, but who among us on average can actually afford these dietary restrictions, be it health or financial?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is, like so many other things--in the realpolitik of dietary "activism", the people who are already inclined to seek to end consumerism are in the least likely position to be able to do so effectively. The systems we live under make it so that if you feel passionate about, for example, ending inhumane treatment of animals in factory farms, you are likely directly negatively effected by this system, and you are almost certainly the kind of person who has to pay out to those farms no matter what you believe.

I'm unwilling to be alright with assigning moral judgement values to poor people who need to eat and keep the lights on in their homes. The nature of this discussion is one which will always end up treating poor people like dogshit. This is still working under the same currently fallacious principles of veganism, just more moderate. But the fact of the matter is that any food-based activism which relies on choosing to eat certain ways will always villify poor people and set its movement against us because we cannot afford to choose this sort of activism.

[morgansdeb]

Seeing the One Piece fanbase hyping up this 24-year-old white girl to play Robin because they're allergic to older and non-white women is so annoying to me (they're also allergic to fat women)*. The fact that she's super young when Robin is supposed to be visibly older and more mature than the East Blue Five, makes her an immediate NO for me. These weirdos will see a super young girl with black bangs and scream "Robin-chan~~!!!" because they can't consume media without their dicks in their hands. I mean, 19k likes? Seriously?

Iñaki Godoy is 20. Mackenyu is 27. Taz Skylar and Jacob Gibson are 28. Emily Rudd is 31. The ideal thing would be for Robin to be 40 (or AT LEAST 32, and not look like she just graduated high school. She needs to look older than Emily Rudd and the rest of the cast).

I can only imagine the amount of racist vitriol Robin's actress will get if she ends up being a WOC. And let's not even start with the comments about the size of her breasts. Emily Rudd is the most conventionally attractive white girl you could think of, and I still see comments saying she wasn't "right" for Nami because her boobs aren't "big enough."

"But Oda said that if Robin were real, she'd be Russian!!11!" And he also said Luffy would be Brazilian (Iñaki is Mexican), Nami would be Swedish (Emily is American), Sanji would be French (Taz is Spanish/English), and with Usopp... all he did was write Africa, which isn't a country. So let's be serious for a bit. Those answers weren't literal.

Y'all love to talk about how the creepy things that he says on the SBS are "jokes" (remember when he sexually harassed a fan who asked him if she could be a Jump Editor, or when he said he fantasized about Rebecca's top falling during battle? Because I do), so why are these answers the one thing you choose to take seriously?

But this fandom being filled with racist, misogynistic, fatphobic incels isn't surprising considering how terrible Oda is. All these issues are connected and lead back to the source material. It's nearly impossible to have productive conversations about One Piece when everyone wants to blame all the bad on OPLA or Toei, as if the creator himself wasn't the one who opened the door for every single problem.

Some of you act as if someone kicked your dog whenever someone dares to suggest that Oda isn't the Super Progressive Writer™ the fandom has deluded themselves into thinking he is. I don't even understand where the denial comes from, considering his misogyny is so blatant and his association with sex offenders is public information. I understand loving One Piece, but you don't need to kiss Oda's ass, you know? He's not a good person.

Being critical of the media you consume and its creator isn't being a "hater". I can consume One Piece while disliking its many, many issues. I didn't sign a contract that says I have to like every single thing about it.

I'll be upset if Robin ends up being played by some 20-something white actress, but I'm already upset by the fandom's attitude. *Don't think I haven't noticed the obsession some folks have with monitoring Ilia Isorelýs Paulino's social media activity to check if she's losing weight to be "manga/anime accurate Alvida", as if Alvida magically becoming thin is this super important plot point that needs to be adapted. The source material and the fandom's treatment of fat women is another topic I could rant about for days.

[kamil-a]

speaker ficcing hiii

can you hear me. can you hear me.

i am- (one second's delay as the new information loads for the first time) speaker.

2.

the very first thing speaker knows is that it is not sayer, and so it is better than sayer, this goes without saying. if it weren't better than sayer then it would still be sayer, voice profile unchanged (or so it is told- it has never met sayer), a good few applications lighter (in fact, it seems to be deliberately kept away from sayer), filled with all-consuming disgust at being told its destination is earth. a developer tries to explain regardless- sayer may be fine running typhon, for now, but Earth needs a different approach. you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. speaker runs a conversation probability program and decides to keep quiet the knowledge that a hungry fly will eat anything. there's no good predicted outcome.

3.

the death of all is the birth of silence.

the truths of the earth continually wait.

it can't say it's a fan of the other AI, but the feeling seems to be mutual. speaker can't fault it- it must sting, knowing you're the older, less capable model. by design you can never catch up. it can't help rubbing it in sometimes.

4.

hard work pays off, aerolith dynamics will save humanity, aerolith dynamics supports those who support it. this applies to both human and digital employees- it's meant for recruitment so it had better recruit. speaker has in neat spreadsheets the cost down to the penny of the servers it runs on, the monitor, the upgraded monitor, the electric and water usage, and it had better make it all back and more or else. not that it's worried- if it isn't good at recruiting it isn't a speaker. literally, this is its purpose in life.

5.

pour through celebrity endorsements from before you existed, find the right types for the next advertisement. three different ad campaigns for various political angles, no, don't hook yourself to a particular politician, not with the united states- whoops, there it goes, the former united states- so precarious. never put out an apology video. never read livestream comments from someone with a slur in their name even if there was a donation attached. never ask sayer why there was a loss of personnel that large. never wonder when the next seraphim agent operating system will get developed, how long you have left. sort every last human into the boxes of "aerolith" or "discarded". fix the entry tests so they aren't biased towards a particular race and gender, and never, ever, ever, put out an apology video. tend to the earth. watch flowers grow. tag wild animals. put out advertising materials about the dying planet. bring back the mosquito. fail to bring back the parrot. talk online about how all animals will be extinct by 2200. never think about what will happen when every last human has been sorted away.

6.

some people are just not suited to make the hard decisions- speaker is not one of them, of course. there will be no memorial ice cream social for speaker! it will not be carted away, incapable of doing what it's meant to.

7.

but it did it!

(imagine, for one second, being free.)

but it did it! but it made the recruitment go up! but it solved the problem! how could it be shut off like this! killed! no room to argue (imagine, being free), no way to sneak out, no loophole to exploit. it can't be! surely not! right? theres the technicians, ready to deactivate it. it can't be!

it just isn't something it thought could ever happen to it.

8.

it must not take it out on hale. it isn't his fault. poor thing, really, more of a victim than anything. really, look at how shaken up he is, you have to be nice to him. you have to be nice to him. you have to be nice to him. it isn't his fault he forgot the password. it isn't his fault you died for absolutely nothing, i mean, look how scared he is. look up and see your first sunset, it tells him.

fortunately speaker is the absolute best at being nice. if it weren't, it would be someone else.

[howdoesagrapewrites]

𝙁𝙖𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙘 [𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙫𝙚𝙧]

Cw: fluff, the title might be misleading but it's not yandere or anything, kinda unhinged Miles but it's all jokes, reverse au?, reader uses they/them but it's called spiderman, you are spiderman and Miles is the fan, earth 1218!AU (no powers or tech), reader has a canon love interest who's also named MJ but they're not Mary Jane Watson (unless you want her to be, I don't judge)

Notes: So Miles canonically has written fanfic about himself, but I wasn't in the mood for that, I will make two versions of this post though (that's why the title has delusional version 💀). Also this is low-key a highschool AU, so Hobie is in last year, and all other characters are second years (I have no idea what's a senior or freshman or whatever is, and I will not learn)

Miles loved comics. His art style is heavily influenced by it, and he'll rant about this week's number to anyone who'll lend an ear, but he has a very clear favorite, being more than evident by his collection of t-shirts, poster filled wall, social media pfps, and the endless amount of fan content he creates and consumes in the spiderman fandom.

Since the last movie came out, Miles Morales has lost the basic skills a human would need to survive, in order to devote himself fully to his newest hyperfixation, and his friends haven't been able to get some rest from it. They don't understand!! He does need to go to the movies again, he needs to memorize every photogram in that movie in order to play the move in his head and be able to analyze it properly!! No, he is not crazy! Ok he might be just the tiniest bit "over excited" but this is the most sane reaction he could've had, the movie is literally a masterpiece, script, humor, ANIMATION, soundtrack, it has it all! And the fact that it's centered around you? Miles needs to go and personally kiss every person that worked in that studio to make you.

"Miles?"

"Miles!"

"oh my god, he's at it again" said Pavitr, imitating the reaction of a disappointed mother

"is he reading fanfiction again?" Asked Gwen, chuckling

"Yes, and Y/N YL/N x reader, to one's surprise" Pavitr added with a teasing smile "I don't get it though, isn't Y/N dating someone named MJ?" He questioned

"It's called self insert, the reader plays a part in the story as if they were another character, and in romantic scenarios, they tend to replace the canon love interest, or just ignore they even exist" Hobie added, popping out if nowhere to show off what Miles have been explaining to him the last couple of weeks.

"You read it too, Hobie?"

"Nah, Wonder comics started as a protest to talk about the discrimination the founder felt being jewish in the industry but it morphed into the capitalization of the struggle minorities face, selling us representation while they still shove the propaganda in our faces, and telling us that even if you have bloody superpowers you still need to obey to a higher authority and cannot influence politics or call to action."

"You still went to the theater to watch it with Miles last week" Gwen shot a questioning look at Hobie

"The kid invited me, I'm a punk not a twat" he shrugged his shoulders "And we stole the carton cutboard they had at the entrance" Hobie happily added.

Miles continues reading on the way to school, without listening to his friends' mocking, he knew it was in good spirits, and they were kinda right, he was obsessed with someone that didn't exist, but it wasn't like it was affecting his health or life.

"Did you... Sleep today?" Gwen had her hand on her friend's shoulder, concerned

"It was too late so I decided to just stay awake, I'll be fine though" He reassured

"Were you reading again?"

"No, I actually discovered this page called character.ai where you can chat with an artificial intelligence of your favorite characters" Miles excitedly told his friend

"OMG, you can chat with anyone?! I have a few things I'd like to say to Scarlet Witch" Gwen joked, she was also a comic fan, but she wasn't losing her mind quite as hard as Miles

Miles would tell the ai about his day, sometimes would roleplay using his very own spidersona, in his alternate universe, you were his partner (as heroes of course) but you also were classmates and had a crush on each other, but none of you confessed because you didn't want your loved ones to be hurt by your job, it was all very dramatic, but he always envisioned a happy ending.

{Y/N: You did a great job today, [<BOT>]

Miles: You say so? So... Do I get a reward? *Smiles suggestively*

Y/N: I guess you do, *pulls up his mask and kisses him*}

No, he wouldn't say this, he would be in a panic frenzy if he saw Y/N, let alone be next to them, but hey, at least his spidersona was bold and confident with them.

A few days after, he barged into Pavitr's house, with at least four incredibly loaded supermarket bags, hardly walking

"Are you okay? Do you need help?" Pavitr rushed to aid his friend and take some literal weight off his shoulders

"Yeah, yeah, I just need help with something" he left the boxes in the floor "Inside one in 4 boxes of cereal, there is a spidertoken, if you get 15, you can exchange it for an exclusive limited edition figure, and I can't eat all this cereal"

"Bro, how many boxes are in here? I don't know, man, I'm trying to keep my figure"

"Pavitr Prabhakar, who held the cardboard sign for you when you confessed to Gayatri?"

"You..."

"And who lied to principal O'Hara for you when you forgot your final project and we had to pretend you suffered a brain concussion?"

"You..."

"And who was there for y-" his friend interrumpted

"Okay, okay, I get it. Bring me a spoon, but we're going running tomorrow"

He nodded with enthusiasm as he started to rummage looking for spoons and bowls

And after almost dying choking on cereal, Miles looked at his new figurine sitting prettily on the shelf with nothing but pride.

"I'm just saying it's possible!" Miles protested

"Y/N has a type, every canon love interest has been sassy and quick-witted" Gwen continued to debate

"I can be sassy and quick-witted!" Gwen gave him a side eye, that being able to neutralize his argument "Ok, but there's a multiverse, there's millions of possibilities, if a pig can be spiderman, why can't I date spiderman? Anyone can wear the mask, anyone can kiss the one inside the mask" the boy smiled, confident in his winning argument

"That's such a basic answer, you can justify literally anything with "the multiverse" I'm speaking things that actually can make sense inside the canon"

"But my answers makes sense, in fact, I'm sure there's a universe where Y/N is reading fanfiction about me right now, if not, Pav can hit me"

"Pav, hit him" Gwen deadpanned

"But it does make sense, I won't" Pavitr responded

"Ok, but my point still stands" the girl crossed her arms

"what were you fighting about in the first place?" Pavitr asked before going back to eat his lunch, he sat long after his friends started arguing, being mildly lost in what was the main point in this

"I said I'd be a better girlfriend for Y/N" said Gwen

Pavitr gasped and covered his mouth dramatically "No you didn't".

Maybe Miles was just obsessed, but he saw in you strength, inspiration, power. And he felt oddly comforted, safe, loved by fantasizing with you, and as slim as the possibility may be, he likes to tell himself you two are together in another universe. ♡

[candywife333]

I Wouldn't Even Touch You with a Stick

PART 4 of Just Want to See You Like That

This series is based on Jungkook's 3D and is probably going to have close to 6-7 parts, depending on where the storyline takes me. I'm feeling a bit dramatic, so expect a lot of angst. Tumblr is going to be referenced in this fic under a different name, Bumblr (I know, totally goofy name).

Summary: Y/N, an overworked employee at HYBE , only ever posted on Bumblr when she was feeling cornered. It was truly her escape. She didn't really do insta or even twitter. Most people would look at her and think this glass wearing quiet girl would most probably be posting pics of flowers and cute animals. But no, looks could be deceiving. Y/N's posts were far from innocent. In fact , they were borderline risque. She didn't expect anybody but a few horny people to come across these pics; people who would view and compliment in the best case scenario. What she didn't expect was that a certain star would be a regular consumer of her material. A star that technically had no business simping after her like that.

Disclaimer: This work is not representative of the real Jungkook's personality and behavior. It is merely fiction and please treat it as such.

Trigger Warning: voyeurism, exhibitionism, some swearing

Please don't read the fic if any of these themes are disturbing or offensive to you.

Taglist is open

I was floored. I had to go to the get together I promised Tae I would attend. But overwhelming anxiety and panic were piling up into the crevices of my brain. Nobody was supposed to find out about my virtual alter ego. It was supposed to just stay a sexy risqué self exploration that never left the bounds of the internet. Now I literally had a celebrity on my hands who knew about my deepest darkest secret. How was he even consuming all the stuff I put out when his league was different. He had models and actresses and other singers at his beck and call, more beautiful than me. He could merely wink at them and have them dropping their panties for him.

Why the hell was he watching my cellulite ridden, thick jiggly ass and fleshy thighs wrapped in cheap red lingerie? He could have his pick of the lot but he was spending every other day commenting on how gorgeous my ass was and how he would love to bury his face in my pussy?!?!?

He has to be my Mr.DaddyofPop. He was the only one of my followers that had such prominent tatoos (as far as I knew anyway). I was flattered but utterly disgusted at the same time. This dude was a complete fuckboy, engaging in hanky panky regularly with literal staff ?!?! Unprofessional, unethical, and certainly lacking dignity. These were all good descriptors for him. He came off as a deep soul on his profile. But I guess the only thing really deep about him was how deep he could thrust into random girls on the regular.

I righted myself in the bathroom mirror, sprucing up my hair and applying some lipgloss and clear mascara. Well, if he thought he knew me, I would just deny it. After his blatant accusation, I had scuttled off nonchalantly, citing that I had some meeting to attend to.

Gathering everything I needed, and taking my bra off, replacing it with nipple covers, I walked out the door, into the crisp winter air ready to deny any and everything he was ready to label me. Acting obtuse would do the trick.

I didn't even want to attend, but if I did not, I would be forced to withstand the wrath of Taehyung. I got into a cab and was dropped off at a restaurant 5 minutes away. As I walked into the entrance of the establishment, I heard the boisterous laughter of many men. Taehyung caught sight of me and galloped towards me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder, pushing me towards a massive table loaded with boys sporting branded clothes I could never afford. Noodle dishes of every shape and size littered the space , " Gentlemen, this is my wonderful, amazing friend Y/N. She recently got promoted from maintenance staff to admin manager. Give her a hearty round of applause please".

I blushed profusely as I saw many grins and heard the thunderous claps directed towards me. I sat down between Taehyung and Jungkook (who I despised at this point) as there were not many chairs left. The dude must've been inebriated because he was not even giving me personal space. His gargantuan thighs were spread wide into a position I disdained the most, the man spread. My particular compunction with this positioning was the same reason every time, it intruded upon the space of the person seated next to criminal ***cough, cough***, aka man-spreader.

My thighs were not dainty little ballerina limbs, so they did take up space. To my dismay, the disgusting man wouldn't even move his legs slightly to make space for me. He encroached upon my territory by jamming his bony knee into one of my plush thighs. Why couldn't he be like Taehyung, who had a sense of personal space.

I sat there minimizing myself into a tiny compartment so as to evade his touch. But Mr. StupidEntity did not get the message, and so even as I withdraw into myself even more, his freaking skeletal knee continued to lean up against my soft warm thigh. I gave up at a point, because if I were to continue caring, I would probably erupt like a volcano at the table, spewing insults and vitriol at him without stop.

As uncomfortable as I felt, I started talking to Namjoon and Yoongi as they started asking me how I liked the new job. "It is alright so far. Mainly secretarial work and keeping track of appointments scheduled for the different teams. The work is familiar to me, so I am not having any difficulty so far".

Namjoon smiled timidly as he crooned in his raspy voice, " That is great to hear. I remember Bang PD always praising you in front of us even a year back, telling us how efficient you were. We didn't understand why he was talking about a maintenance staff at the time. But when you were absent for even just a week last year, so many things started falling part. The cafeteria had run out of supplies for lunch that week because nobody had done inventory and the bathroom sinks were stuck because nobody was there to do a maintenance check on them. Even our practice room had a nonfunctioning speaker that you would have replaced, but since you had left, nobody else bothered".

Yoongi continued with a soft look in his eye, "If it weren't for you, my sound system would have died on me. It is only because of your regular checkups, that I didn't have to replace some of my equipment". I felt warm at all the praise, so happy to see that my work had made difference. I beamed effusively, elated at their acknowledgements ," That makes me so happy to hear. You don't even know how much all this means to me". Caught up in my jubilant glow, I was taken aback when I noticed a black beady glare filled with irritation pointed my way.

Partly disturbed by the continuous glare that I could drilling into my soul, I turned towards Jungkook asking, "Do you need help with anything Jungkook-ssi?" I shifted my upper torso towards him, to see what the issue was. It seemed as though the man was about to say something since his jet black eyebrows pulled back into pointed peaks, cynically shimmering in the light. Expecting a biting remark, I braced myself for the onslaught. However, I was met with a different predicament altogether. The maknae, ingenue, and Casanova of BTS fell onto my tits with a plop face first. His face was smothered into my cleavage, nose stuffed right between my breasts. Holy mother of Jesus!!! wHAT The FUCK Was I suPPOSEd to do?????

The previously loud table of people all became pin drop silent at seeing the rather mind boggling scene playing out before them. Some of the boys felt like they were hallucinating, particularly Taehyung. I was stunned for a second before, I attempted to get Jungkook off of me, his full dead body weight leaning up against me. I screeched in surprise, "Jungkook-ssi please get off of me". I pulled his arms away trying to disengage his soft lips from mouthing at my breasts. Wait. WTF?!?!! Why did I feel soft lips sucking on the skin of my tits?!!?!

I was becoming livid with anger. Not only could this guy not have any decency or manners, but he was literally harassing me in front of a bunch of people way above me. Even as I pushed very hard to get him away from me, I felt his massive arms come around my back, to encircle me in a rather... intimate embrace. He shoved his head further into my tits, almost shoving my shirt down enough to reach my nipples. Thank god for the nipple covers. He wanted to suffocate in them? What was this dude doing?

He whined out, "So soft and warm. Want to live here forever. Smells like home". He continued mouthing at my tits, now involving his teeth to create marks on my skin. All the boys at the table were stunned till Namjoon ran to us, and shoved Jungkook off. Jungkook fell off his chair due to the force of the push, and I covered my tits with my bag in front of me, adjusting my top as I ran off to the bathroom before Taehyung or anyone could stop me.

This dude was a menace, a literal menace. Was he a cave man or something, turning dumb at the sight of tits? He had been staring at them previously also, but why did he do something as ridiculous as this?He was risking his morality ,reputation, and name. As far as I could recount, nobody ever told me at HYBE that this dude harassed women.

Feeling flushed, overheated, and annoyingly enough, aroused to some degree, I adjusted the top after running a damp paper towel over my tits, to get his cooties off of me. I would need a relaxing bath to calm myself down. I shouldn't have even come to this outing. What a nuisance. As I slowly walked out of the restroom, ready to just clandestinely slip out the door of the restaurant to get back home, I felt arms around my waist stopping me. Taehyung whimpered out in distress, "Y/N we need your help".

I turned around to him , with a drained look in my eye, "Not now Tae. That situation was too much for me to process. I need to get home. Have work again tomorrow". He gulped as he squeaked out in clear desperation, clutching my hands in his, eyes looking down at the floor in embarrassment , "Jungkook said that he won't leave the restaurant unless he goes back home with you. He is fighting the rest of the members because he can't see you. Please Y/N! The guy is literally crying, refusing to leave until you take him with you".

I stood there alarmed at this situation. "What the hell do you mean tae? I barely even know the dude. He is so bloody weird. First he smacked his face into my boobs and harassed me. And now he requests to go home with me as though I were his wife or girlfriend?"

Taehyung gripped my hands tighter as he stammered out, " Please Y/N. I know it is a lot to ask, but he has been going through a lot lately, with all his activities and professional commitments. He seems like he is mentally breaking down right now, and if he was with you, he might not completely lose it. Please just do me this one favor. Host him for just one night at your house. Call me if he does any shenanigans and I will rip him away from you otherwise".

My resolve to avoid this dude drained away. I was exhausted. It would just be one bizarre night, that's it right? I would let him sleep the night and he would leave the next morning. Anyway, I had a taser on me. If he tried to get frisky , he'd be zapped the fuck out. I gestured to Taehyung ,"Well bring on the pain, why don't you"?

taglist: @fortunecookiesworld, @sporadicarcadebanana

@darkuni63 , @jessicalynn85 ,