#mid read commentary

[pathos-bathos]

Piranesi? What are you doing in my "the priory of the orange tree"?

[chiropteracupola]

I LOVE WHEN MAGIC SYSTEMS RECALL HUMORIC MEDICINE!!!!

[emblazons]

They really gave the whole ending of S4 away (“eleven”losing to Vecna, including his signature sound) in a ten second clip of a DnD dice roll in episode one and people still claim there’s nothing deeper going on in this show.

Couldn’t be me. Stay safe tho

[nicholas-wolfwood]

Okay, time for these two idiots to find anyone powerful enough for protection against the angry rainbow-haired yarn bitch. At least until Wolfwood was a man again, or she got bored.

Primary candidates: The “apocalypse twins”, as Midvalley had dubbed them.

[wingsofhcpe]

just got spoilered for the entirety of interview with the vampire help fjskrkks

[fipindustries]

watching defunctland

the kids cities concept is just so incredibly fascinating to watch. it almost feels like unintentional commentary, there are some many directions in which to read this. it almost feels like something out of a magical realism novel from the mid 20th century.

the concept of children doing adult things, pretending to be adults, while a few actual adults around take care of them and make sure they are doing things right, having fun and not hurting each other, while their fathers and mothers rest above them on a lounge. is hard not to see a commentary about humans guided by angels while the gods rest atop mount olympus.

this is begging to be adapted into a lord of the flies style horror movie or a weird surrealist dark comedy or something. its such a rich vein to explore. what if we take the concept further, we got children doctors and children pilots and children police. why not children garbage collectors? children homeless? children drugaddicts?

[s1utlvr]

Candy ༯

synopsis: Your boyfriend’s an asshole, but everytime you break up without fail Clarisse always welcomes you with open arms.

a/n: hihi!!!!! I wrote this as a kind of quick drable to prequel feather but can be read as a one shot as well guess I should mention it is a college au sort offfff. General warnings asshole ex Luke suggestive themes weed things are implied but nothing outright said you know the drill read it or don’t!!!!

inspired by Candy by Doja Cat

You really didn’t mean to make it a habit.

But you knew if you went to your friends and told them about how you’d broken up with Luke for what had had to have been the fiftieth time this semester they’d tell you the exact same things they’d been preaching to you since the first time you ��broke up”.

So there you were once again, standing outside of Clarisse’s dorm teary eyed in your pajamas knocking at her door.

It took one glance of you for Clarisse to figure out what had happened.

“So what was it this time?” She asked with a smirk as she motioned for you to come in.

“Good he was just being such an asshole about me going out with my friends” you say as you plop down onto her bed as you embraced one of her pillows.

“When is Luke not being an asshole?” Clarisse scoffed as she grabbed a lighter and a joint she had pre-rolled.

“For me?” You asked looking up at clarisse with bright eyes as she sat down next to you.

“No im just gonna smoke while you watch in misery” she responded as she lit up the end of the joint before placing it up by your lips.

Clarisse always knew how to make you feel better even if it came with a side of sarcastic commentary.

“Gee thanks” you replied with a sarcastic smile as you took the joint between your fingers.

You couldn’t help but admire Clarisse in this lighting. The way sweatpants hung low on her waist and the way her sports bra hugged her chest, but little did you know that you were staring…very hard actually..

“Stop looking at me like that” Clarrise scoffed snatching the joint that laid between your fingers her voice snapping you back to reality.

“Like what?” You asked.

“Like you wanna kiss me” She said taking a drag from the joint. You were staring at her lips now.

“What if I do?” You asked watching the smoke escape from her lips as she laid back.

“I wouldn’t let you” You frowned at her words as she passed you the joint.

“Why?” You asked placing the joint between your pouty lips before passing it back to Clarisse.

“Cause” she said taking a hit mid sentence “You know you’re gonna get back together next week and then you’re gonna feel all guilty for fucking around with me and I’m not gonna be at fault for that.”

You rolled your eyes at her words as you adjusted yourself your legs now on either side of hers as you straddled her

“I can handle my own feelings Clar. Luke’s probably out getting his dick sucked so who’s to say I can’t kiss you?”

“So do it. Kiss me.”

You didn’t even let the words fully leave her mouth before your lips were on hers.

Clarrise knew it was wrong of her to enjoy these moments so much. She knew she shouldn’t be hoping and praying that your dick of a boyfriend would pull a dick move so you’d end up on her doorstep all needy and desperate but gods she craved it so much. She knew it wasn’t real that it could never be that girls like you could never be saved from going back to your shitty boyfriends time and time again but aslong as it meant that she could indulge in you everytime you and Luke broke up she prayed that he would never change.

Your lips were the sweetest thing she’d ever tasted, and she was fucking addicted.

[somehow-a-human]

Whose POV is it anyway?

An Introduction

DO NOT ASK NEIL ABOUT FAN THEORY

Cracking down on the storytelling of Good Omens season 2 through the lens of a changing narrator.

If you haven't read this interview with Good Omens cinematographer Gavin Finney, and you're interested in the fantastic dedication and detail that went into this TV show, definitely give it a read. Not only is it lovely, but Neil also posted the article with a caption mentioning that it's got so many secrets in it. Obviously that made me take a closer look.

I have already gone into a fair bit of detail about the different Lens Filters that Finney mentions in the article in a separate post and I will be referring to them quite a bit so if you aren't familiar with them I would suggest reading that first!

This first post is going to cover the basics of changing narrator/POV's and I'll be writing additional posts for separate episodes/minisodes/scenes since there's obviously way too much to cover in a single go. So shall we take our first look?

It's no secret that something's a *bit weird* with season two, and there are SO many theories about it. I love to read speculation, metas, theories, and opinions, it's definitely fun but my personal ideas align more with the idea that we're simply being shown the events of season 2 through the memories of multiple narrators, different POV's, and it slightly skews the story, sometimes within one continuous scene.

I am also a sucker for a good multiple timeline theory but that isn't this post.

Lens Filters

As I stated above, I wrote a post about each of these individual filters earlier. What I didn't go into in that post was speculation about the filters. While I think they're pretty straightforward, especially the filter for hell (Black Pro-Mist ((BPM)), I think the other two have a bit more room for speculation.

Bronze Glimmer Glass

BGG was described by Finney as being used for 'bookshop scenes', but after S2 back numerous times and paying as much attention as I could to the lighting and colouring of the scenes, I think this is generally true but not always true. There are times when bookshop scenes seem to use a different filter, and other locations also seem to be shot with the BGG filter as well. I think BGG aligns with Aziraphale's POV. Or if Not Aziraphale, an outside-of-Crowley narrator? Based on the scenes (which we'll specifically get into in other posts) which BGG seems to be used, context clues, character behavior, etc, I think BGG clues us in that we're seeing, if you will, through Aziraphale's eyes.

Black Diffusion FX

BDFX was described as being used for 'Crowley's present day storyline' and fuck me, that's not ominous or weirdly phrased at all Mr. Finney! This filter definitely aligns with Crowley. Most of the time he's separate from Aziraphale it seems that this is the filter being used, and certain scenes switch filters mid-scene when he begins to go off on snarky Crowley-centric commentary.

Catch-22 & Herzog

The books on Gabriels bookshelf, great books obviously, but I think books that are also meant to give us context about the story. Pride and Prejudice is a love story about making snap judgements on someone's character, and coming to recognize somebody might be good despite their title or appearance. The Crow Road is a story about life, death, love, morality, mystery, and God. 1984 details the tragedy of Julia and Winston's attempt at falling in love while living under in a police state. You see my point?

That's why I wanted to touch a bit more on Catch-22 and Herzog specifically when talking about the possibility of changing narrators/POV's in Good Omens 2.

Catch-22 frequently switches narrator and the events described are often not necessarily sequential. This way you're getting information about previous scenes as the story continues, so while you're reading the book you're forming a more complete image of the events as the story continues from different characters POV's and iterations of the story. Sound relevant?

Herzog is the other book I wanted to talk about. To be fair I haven't read Herzog in full like I have Catch-22 but I pulled out my copy to reference and flip through a bit to remind myself. Herzog unlike Catch-22 doesn't switch narrators but the narration by the main character, Herzog himself, switches between first and third person throughout. When he is narrating through his letters, you get a deeper look at his thought processes and emotions. It also relies on flashbacks to bring context to the life of Herzog.

While these books touch on other elements that are relevant to the Good Omens story, namely Yossarian's relationship and views of God in Catch-22, the way these stories are told intrigued me for this context.

Crowley's Hair

Yeah I'm gonna mention the hair, because I think the hair is linked. Crowley's shorter sideburns, trimmed mutton chops in the 1827 flashback, and shorter Job wig seem to be clearly aligned with the BDFX filter/Crowley's POV as far as I can tell. I don't know if this means it's just another way to denote POV, but it seems way too consistent not to mention it. The longer sideburns, fuller mutton chops, and longer Job wig all match up with Aziraphale's POV or the BGG filter. My thoughts here are that his hair is another hint of who may be relaying the information to us, AKA is it internal or external. I am making my best guesses though and there are still some situations that I feel less sure about. For example, when Aziraphale takes the Bentley to Edinburgh and Crowley is in the Bookshop with Jim his sideburns are long, is it because he's remembering these scenes unreliably? Is Aziraphale imagining the events? Is it because Jim is present? A brief fluttering thought I toy with from time to time is the fact that in the before-the-beginning scene they are long, and what that means in context of the rest of the season.

S2 Promo Posters

Finally this set of season 2 promo posters showing the characters thoughtfully considering scenes in their heads just gives me a lot of these POV vibes.

I'm planning on doing individual posts for specific scenes, episodes, and minisodes that require detailed breakdowns. I'll update this list with links as the posts are finished!

POV "Your 'Something's Wrong' Voice"

POV a Trip to Hell and a 25 Lazarii Miracle

POV a Companion to Owls

POV The Dirty Donkey & I think I Found a *Clue*!

POV Bodysnatchers & Cosplaying a bookseller

POV 1941

POV The Ball

POV The End?

Whose POV is it Anyway - a Conclusion

[wileys-russo]

hey bb hope ur allgoods !!! i was reading that anonymous sayint “leah letting lessi top would be a whole lot of ‘you’re not doing it right’ and I WAS SWOONING !!! could u write a blurb about that like leah letting lessi be top FOR ONCE and she’s still interfering!! all goods is cant love you xx

hey love i don't write smut but so many of you have asked for this or this w reader so i tried to write it without it being direct smut?

you're not doing it right II a.russo & l.williamson

"i still say you can't do it." you smiled knowingly toward leah, hands folded behind your head as you lay half naked on the bed awaiting alessia to join the two of you, leah sat on the other side of the room manspreading like the polite young lady that she was.

"i can too, watch your mouth." leah warned making your smile widen. "that was quite a top thing of you to say love." you teased her with a grin, making the blonde roll her eyes but bite her tongue from saying anything further as your other girlfriend returned.

"baby you don't need to prepare for this, ignore her. pretend its just us!" you smiled softly to the striker who was clearly apprehensive about the idea.

"we've done plenty of things without leah before." you continued slyly, glancing to the eldest blonde who glared your way but remained quiet, observing from the love seat in the corner.

"except its not just the two of you. i said she could be in charge which means really you have to top both of us darling." leah smiled smugly, alessia's eyes widening in realization as you sat up and grabbed her hands.

"shut up leah. stop winding her up!" you warned the defender sternly who held up her hands with a cocky smile, settling back into the chair.

"you shut up." alessia warned suddenly, her hand grabbing at your jaw and turning your head to face her, your cheeks flushing slightly pink at the change of tone.

"don't be a brat and we'll be just fine."

an hour later and you had to wave the white flag, absolutely exhausted as alessia rolled off of you, leaving you naked and panting to try and catch your breath.

the blonde sat up on her knees, staring at you with lust filled eyes as her piercing blue orbs roamed the dark red and purple marks littering your tanned skin.

"switch. your turn!" you finally caught your breath somewhat, gesturing for leah to swap with you as alessia hurried to help you to your feet, slipping one of her jerseys over your naked body, your legs shaky as memories of what had just occurred flashed through your mind.

you winced a little as you sat down in the love seat leah had just been occupying moments earlier. a few choice words from you had wound up in the italian really showing you just how dominant she could be when pushed, and it was safe to say you'd struggle with sitting down for the next couple of days.

leah had done surprisingly well at keeping quiet throughout the whole ordeal which could probably be attributed to just how horny it had made her watching you and alessia go at it.

it left the english captain more than ready for it to be her turn, having to use all of her patience not to jump the both of you mid way through.

"you know you look quite good underneath me love." alessia started strong with a smirk as she straddled the older blonde, confidence built up from her last hour spent basically destroying you. "don't get used to it." leah chuckled as alessia tutted in warning, you watching on with a shift as alessias hand gripped leahs neck.

"baby you're not doing it right, you have to squeeze from the sides not the-" leah started to correct, you coughing obnoxiously and shooting her a warning look as the blonde rolled her eyes but fell quiet.

"you better keep that mouth closed unless its moaning my name." alessia warned smugly, not thrown off by the older girls commentary, still riding out her high from her time spent with you, and the satisfaction that during it leah could only look and not touch.

"put her in her place lessi baby." you watched on with a smug smile which quickly dropped as both blondes shot you a firm warning look, silencing you without even needing words.

it seemed to go well at first, you shifted as you watched on with hungry eyes, leahs moans filling the room only interrupted by the sounds of their lips smacking together as the defender withheld her urge to take over.

"no no, higher." leah ordered with a breathy moan, nudging alessia up a little as the girl sucked on her neck, the italian smacking her shoulder and warning her to be quiet, but did what she asked regardless.

which in hindsight was not her best move.

"no, more." leahs hand grabbed the back of alessia's head, pushing her face back into her neck as she tried to pull away. alessia however wasted no time grabbing the blondes hands and pinning them by her head.

"you do what i say, not the other way around." the italian warned with a scowl as leah rolled her eyes but nodded. "and don't roll your fucking eyes at me." you couldn't help but smile smugly at the look of surprise which flashed across leahs face at the younger girls authoritative tone.

once again it seemed the power balance had restored as alessia quickly regained control, leaving leah a mess of moans and whiny begs once more. but it seemed old habits die hard as not long after the commentary from the english captain started up again.

"no put your knee there instead."

"less no use your tongue."

"no that's not how you do it you move them in circles."

"less you're not doing it right you-"

"oh my god, i give up!" alessia finally snapped as she had enough, sitting up and rolling off of the older blonde, yanking a shirt out of the drawer and storming off to the bathroom, slamming the door after her.

"you're just gonna leave me like this!?" leah yelled out after her in disbelief, sitting up resting on her elbows, naked body heaving a little at the abrupt stop. "don't look at me, you did that to yourself." you shook your head as the blonde turned her needy gaze your way.

"go and apologize to her, now leah." you ordered, standing to your feet with a slight wobble, crossing your arms firmly over your chest. "leah." you warned a little firmer this time. "i was just trying to help her!" the blonde frowned with a slight pout.

"she didn't need your help, you're just a control freak." you accused as leah scoffed. "leah, baby. bedroom activities aside we all know who calls the shots in this relationship, so go and apologise to alessia, now." you moved closer, staring down at leah with a dangerously calm smile.

but it worked as the blonde sighed, slipping a shirt over naked form and sitting up. "i knew you couldn't do it though." you added on with a small chuckle as the defender pushed herself off the bed.

you hissed as her hand suddenly and swiftly smacked your backside, glaring daggers at the cocky smile which followed before she turned around and headed for the bathroom, sighing before opening the door and stepping inside.

and when the two of them emerged a little while later, leahs hair a mess and a smug smile on alessia's face you couldn't help but shake your head knowingly, both blondes collapsing into the bed either side of you as you melted into them and alessia grinned.

"so lee baby, did i do it right?"

[pascalcampion]

Winslow Homer 1836-1910. American

When I see an unfinished sketch, or an image that feels drawn by a hand, I experience beauty. I don’t know why. I think it is beauty. It is a feeling I appreciate. I want to hold on to that feeling, Or at least draw it out. It feels like a musical note that doesn’t end. It’s dynamic, not static. It feels pure but I am not sure why. Is the experience of the emotion detached from the image? It needs to be right? Otherwise, everybody would be feeling that same emotion. So,what is it? What is it about a drawn line that makes people feel that,

I look at Homer’s watercolors and I am always caught off guard by that feeling of beauty and awe. Is it the fact that I see a boat, I feel the heat,I sense the passage of time and yet, I am fully aware that my brain is deceiving me? That I am not seeing any of it but just imagining it? I wonder if I read his work through my knowledge of life and that is what creates the feeling of beauty?

Homer's work helped me realize that a body of work is a conversation the artist is having with themselves. Exploring the world and trying to make sense of what is important to them. Homer’s work starts with illustration of war and nostalgic life style images. As he progresses in life, the need for plot devices fades away. It frees his mind to focus on what keeps drawing back to art. Homer still paints everyday scenes but the emphasis is on the relationship between nature and man. The power of one, the place of the other. No commentary, just observations

Themes that were present in his earlier work but hiding by the needs of traditionally accepted beauty, the works that sell. The funny thing is that Homer was broke for most of his life. He only became comfortable in his mid fifties when he would focus on these conversational paintings. Technically,his work gets better, pictorially, it becomes simpler, more bare. There is something reassuring and inspiring about Homer's path. The older he got, the stronger his work became. It seems to go against the thought that artists are like athletes. They go through their heyday first and live to remember them. Homer's path is more like a wine that gains in character as it ages.

[pathos-bathos]

Ursula K Le Guin I love you so much

[moistvonlipwig]

Eternity, Growing Up, and Why Buffy Keeps Dating Vampires

Vampires in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, on a most basic level, represent stagnation, a desire to stay young forever, the refusal to grow up. The show emphasizes this several times: in the show's very first episode, Buffy recognizes a vampire by his outdated outfit, and in 2.07 "Lie to Me," Ford claims that becoming a vampire will allow him to "die young and stay pretty," the dream of "every American teen." Buffy's role as the titular vampire slayer can thus be read as a metaphor for her choosing to grow up and become an adult in the face of temptations to do otherwise. So what does it mean, then, that Buffy's two most narratively significant love interests are vampires -- that she repeatedly, across seven seasons, courts eternal immaturity? I would argue that Buffy's relationships with Angel and Spike represent her inner struggle to accept the reality of growing up and getting older.

Buffy and Angel's relationship is marked by repeated references to the concept of "forever" or an eternal relationship: "When I look into the future, all I see is you" (2.12 "Bad Eggs"); "Love is forever" (2.19 "I Only Have Eyes For You"); "Forever. That's the whole point" (3.01 "Anne"); "You still my girl?" / "Always" (3.17 "Enemies"); Buffy's "Buffy & Angel 4ever!" doodle on her notebook (3.20 "The Prom"); "How's forever? Does forever work for you?" (5.17 "Forever"). At first glance, this may appear to be a romantic cliche, but taken in context of what vampires represent, the motif takes on new meaning. To be eternal is to be like a vampire -- to stagnate, to never change or grow or mature. Indeed, Angel's final line on the entire show, in his and Buffy's last scene together, is, "I ain't getting any older" (7.22 "Chosen"). In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, immortality is synonymous with immaturity. To want a "forever" relationship, then, is to want to never grow up.

(This idea is revisited in the Angel episode 2.13 "Happy Anniversary," a disturbing tale about a man who responds to his impending breakup with his girlfriend Denise by attempting to freeze them both in time mid-coitus forever. Lorne's response -- "I can hold a note forever. But eventually that's just noise. It's the change we're listening for. The note coming after, and the one after that. That's what makes it music." -- is a perfect summation of the Buffyverse's stance on the concept of eternity. To last "forever" is not romantic or beautiful; it is simply to be in stasis.)

Buffy and Angel's relationship is also frequently associated with death, and Buffy's death in particular: "When you kiss me, I wanna die" (2.05 "Reptile Boy"); kissing against a gravestone reading "In Loving Memory" ("Bad Eggs"); Angel's dream of Buffy bursting into flames in the sunlight like a vampire after marrying him ("The Prom"). The implication is that, if Buffy stays in the relationship, it will metaphorically kill her, cut off her future, freeze her in this moment of teenage love until the end of time, like the first episode's vampire whose fashion sense was stuck in the past or, indeed, like the fate that almost befell poor Denise. To borrow a metaphor from Revolutionary Girl Utena (another show very concerned with the dichotomy of eternity vs. growing up), Angel and Buffy's relationship is their coffin. They can choose to stay trapped in it forever, to never grow or change, and thus to metaphorically die; or they can choose to leave, to grow and change and mature, to gain "the power to imagine the future" (Ikuhara Kunihiko, Utena DVD commentary), where before they could only imagine each other.

It's no coincidence that the second season's finale, an episode all about "becoming," about growing up and maturing, is when Buffy finally finds the strength to kill Angel in order to save the world. In doing so, she rejects her desire to stay young forever, trapped in her coffin with Angel for all of eternity, and chooses to continue to grow up instead. But, of course, growing up is never quite so simple; Angel comes back, and Buffy falls back into her relationship with him, falls back into her desire to pretend the events of the second season never happened and she is still the same young girl who never lost her "innocence" at his hands. Even when we consciously choose to grow up, it is all too easy to seek comfort in the idea that maybe, if we try hard enough, we won't have to. In the end, it is Angel who recognizes the harm their relationship is doing to Buffy, and he departs, taking Buffy's childhood with him. Her youth leaves her, as it leaves us all, whether she wants it to or not.

But Angel is not the last vampire she has a relationship with. In the show's sixth season, Buffy emerges from her literal coffin only to climb right back into a metaphorical one. In the time since she said goodbye to Angel, Buffy has attended college, had to drop out of college, had another romantic relationship fail, lost her mother, essentially become a parent to her newly-acquired sister, died through suicidal self-sacrifice, and been resurrected only to find that she is still just as depressed as she was before dying and is now swamped with bills she cannot pay. Her problems are firmly in the realm of adulthood, and at many points throughout the first half of the season, she longs for the grave she left instead of the life she has: "I was happy. [...] I think I was in heaven. [...] This is hell" (6.03 "After Life"); "There was no pain / no fear, no doubt / 'til they pulled me out / of heaven" (6.07 "Once More, with Feeling").

It is at this point that she begins a sexual relationship with Spike, her second dalliance with eternal immaturity. Buffy and Spike's relationship is also marked by references to death, with an emphasis this time on graves: Spike notices and verbalizes the shared experience they have of clawing their way out of their graves ("After Life"); Spike and Buffy fall into a grave together during Spike's song, during which he beseeches her to "let [him] rest in peace" ("Once More, with Feeling"); several of their sexual encounters literally occur inside the crypt Spike lives in; this crypt is brought into focus especially in 6.13 "Dead Things," in which Buffy and Spike place their hands on either side of its door, separated by her status as living and his as dead. Buffy additionally uses Spike as a proxy to call herself "dead inside" ("Dead Things"). Buffy may have literally risen from the dead, but in a metaphorical sense, she is still trapped in her coffin, unwilling to leave it.

There are, of course, multiple layers to the grave and coffin motif in Buffy the Vampire Slayer's sixth season. But I would argue that one such layer is that it serves as an extension of the death metaphor from Buffy and Angel's relationship, in which death signified Buffy never growing up. In this reading, Buffy's longing for the "heaven" granted to her by the grave is really a longing for the innocence of youth, now lost to her as she must continue to grow up. In Buffy's confession to Spike in "After Life" about where she was in death, she makes particular note of how "time didn't mean anything" in the place she labels "heaven," whereas in the real world, it's hellish "just getting through the next moment, and the one after that." Unlike Lorne, who saw beauty in the progression of time, Buffy sees only suffering, and longs for a time in her life when time itself seemed not to march forward at all.

It is no wonder, then, that she seeks comfort in someone who is frozen in time, who can never grow up. If Buffy's relationship with Angel represented her childhood desire to stay young forever and never face the hardships of adulthood, her relationship with Spike represents her adulthood desire to return to that period of youth and never leave it, to curl up in her coffin and close the lid. But unlike Buffy and Angel's relationship, which is littered with references to eternity, Buffy repeatedly insists on the temporary nature of her dalliance with Spike: "What we did is done. But I will never kiss you, Spike. Never touch you, ever, ever again" (6.08 "Tabula Rasa"); "Not gonna happen. Last night was the end of this freak show" (6.10 "Wrecked"). Buffy is furious with Spike for his hold over her and hates herself for wanting him, but returns to him again and again. She believes she shouldn't want to return to her unattainable youth, she knows she should accept her adult life and face its difficulties head-on, yet when confronted with its difficulties, she repeatedly goes to Spike to escape them, as in 6.11 "Gone," 6.12 "Doublemeat Palace," and 6.15 "As You Were."

If Angel represents Buffy's youth and Spike her nostalgia for that youth, then of course it follows that Angel must leave Buffy, but Buffy must leave Spike. Nostalgia, unlike youth, does not depart from us so easily. But she does leave him, and in the sixth season's finale, she finally crawls out of the grave she's been trapped in, represented by her leading her sister out of a literal grave and smiling at the world before her. As Buffy tells Dawn: "Things have really sucked lately, but it's all gonna change. And I wanna be there when it does. [...] And I want to see you grow up" (6.22 "Grave"). Change, the inevitable forward march of time, the reality of growing up -- these things no longer strike Buffy as hellish, but rather beautiful. She is an adult, and she is living in this ever-changing world, and she embraces that reality fully, leaving the coffin of youth behind for good.

What to make, then, of Buffy's relationship with Spike in the show's seventh season? I would argue that her evolving feelings towards Spike in the final season represent her reconciling with and forgiving her past self, the Buffy that didn't want to grow up, before finally letting that part of her go. She comes to recognize that Spike, like her past self, was capable of change, eternally immature though he may seem. She forgives herself for wanting him. When he offers to leave, she tells him she is "not ready for [him] to not be here" (7.14 "First Date"). She has already chosen to embrace and accept her adulthood, and she no longer resents her desire to return to childhood, but she still needs her inner eternal child with her.

It is in the very last episode of the series that she lets go, demonstrating her full-hearted and joyful acceptance of ephemerality in the process. Buffy has not told a romantic partner she loves them since Angel, although she told Angel she loved Riley in Angel 1.19 "Sanctuary," and from episodes like 4.03 "The Harsh Light of Day," it is clear how much the unexpected transience of her supposed-to-be-forever relationship with Angel has haunted her. But in 7.22 "Chosen," Buffy tells Spike she loves him in a moment when she knows for sure that his death is imminent and that their joint existence together is temporary. She no longer fears a love that is not eternal. Through Spike, she expresses her love for her past self and for the part of her that never quite grew up, and then she lets that part die with him, and with Sunnydale itself, the place where she spent her adolescence, another representation of the grave that was her dream of forever childhood. Despite this destruction and loss, Buffy only smiles in its face, and it is this smile we leave her on. She has grown up, she has forgiven herself for not wanting to grow up, she has let go of the last remnants of the childhood she once hoped would be eternal, and she has come to not only accept the ephemeral, ever-changing nature of life, but to meet it with love and joy. "The power to imagine the future" is hers to wield. And her smile tells us that she is finally ready to wield it.

[shares-a-vest]

"Are you sure you don't want to just come over to my place?"

Steve bites his lip, contemplating the proposal Robin has offered him several times this week, ever since he'd told her he was having lunch with his parents.

It was Father's Day after all.

His parents would be home for at least a fortnight this time, on a quick stop-over in Hawkins before leaving again, this time for a vacation somewhere. They needed "a break" his mother had said with a laboured sigh, all whistful and longing as if she wasn't making such a statement amidst a lengthy monologue about all the friends they had just caught up with in Indianapolis.

Steve guesses they were technically a business trip. Though his recollections of such trips he'd gone as a kid (back when his parents absolutely had to bring him along) did involve the odd visit to Head Office in between social gatherings that only ever felt vaguely related to his father's business.

He turns away from the wall-mounted phone in the kitchen to look out at the patio. His father is sitting on a lounge chair, drinking a coffee and, low and behold, reading his new copy of The Bourne Supremacy Steve had handed him at breakfast.

His father was impossible to buy for - so a book was always a safe enough choice, one that would at least give him a "thank you" in return with no further commentary or snark.

"Uh..." he hums into the phone as his father turns a page, "Y'know what? Maybe later."

He gasps as his mother opens the back sliding door to the kitchen, the skirt of her yellow patterned kaftan flowing along with her. He turns back to the wall, crowding the phone base.

"Steve?" his mother asks, chuckling, "You're still on the phone!"

It isn't exactly chastising, more amused like Robin's mother gets about the pair of them talking on the phone for a solid hour at a time.

He looks over his shoulder and rolls his eyes as his best friend groans at the comment.

"Are you sure?" Robin asks, tone abruptly turning serious, "You know my dad loves you, Steve."

"I'll come by later," he insists, "Promise."

"...Okay..." she sighs before hanging up.

As he mounts the speaker, Steve is greeted with a knowing look from his mother. She is holding a glass of iced tea, fresh ice cubes tinkling away in the tall glass.

"Mom, don't," he whines, hoping to get outside and drive straight into the pool and away from any further conversation.

She holds her free hand up in surrender, tilting her head, "Okay, darling."

"I'm going for a dip," he grumbles before heading out to the pool area.

"Your mother and I are headed over to the Martens soon," his father announces as Steve passes by his reclining form.

His stomach drops and he freezes mid-stride to the outdoor chair he'd designated for his towel.

"What?" he blurts out, practically shouting as he whips around.

His father sets his book in his lap and looks up, shielding his eyes from the sun with his left hand. The sunlight reflects off his shiny watch and directly into Steve's eyes.

He grimaces, quickly mirroring his father.

"But..." he begins, trying to even out his clipped tone, "You said... We... You said we were having lunch here?"

"Your mother didn't tell you?"

"But..." he repeats, his voice catching in his throat a little, "It's Father's Day."

His father stands, stretches and gathers up the beach towel he had propped under his knees.

"We wanted to see them before we headed out."

"You're here for two weeks!" Steve argues, waving his hand as if to capture the presumed time his father has to visit his oldest and most insufferable friend.

"Steve, John and Louise's son is that busy working, he doesn't have time to be sitting around on Father's Day. So, we figured we'd meet them for lunch."

"Um..." he gulps, now blinking away tears.

He closes his eyes for a moment, breathing in and out as slowly as his growing anger will allow. The sun feels like it is burning into his bare skin, now, no longer feeling like the calming warmth he had felt when he came out to access the pool earlier.

He opens his eyes to find his father turned towards the back door.

"I'm going to Robin's."

He doesn't wait for an answer as he pushes past his father and back into the kitchen. Thankfully, his mother is nowhere to be seen as he makes a beeline for the laundry room where he'd left his work clothes from yesterday with his car keys still in the pocket of his jeans.

He grabs his Member's Only jacket from the coat rack on the way out. Even though the thing is less than weather-appropriate for a Sunday in June, right now it will suffice...

"Steve!" Robin's dad beams after he opens the front door.

The man is wearing a comically bright shirt, a Hawaiian-style button-up with a primary-coloured geometric pattern and squiggly green swirls. Steve thinks his father would hate it.

"Hi, Mr Buckley," he says, offering a tight-lipped smile as he holds out a store-bought key lime pie.

"Steve, please call me Richard," the man insists, unaware that sharing a name with his own father makes Steve want to fucking scream.

Richard takes a pie with a formal nod, his smile dropping a little as Steve shuffles about on the spot. The man looks him up and down.

Shit.

He'd forgotten about the jacket just as quickly as he had shrugged it on before speeding off in his car. But Richard waves him in with an insistent hand, thankfully not prying any further. It is probably quite obvious he isn't wearing a shirt underneath. The thought makes him itch as he becomes all too aware of the slippery fabric, its lining making the back of his neck prickle with sweat.

"Robin is in her room," Richard whispers as Steve steps inside and remembers his flip-flops too as they scuff on the threshold.

"The pie is from Melvad's, sorry," is all he thinks to say.

Richard gives him a pat on the back, just as Robin begins descending the staircase, wearing a shirt just as loud as her father's, only purple and maroon.

She smiles, though her eyes suggest she is clearly worried.

"Steve's here, darling!" Richard announces, intentionally boisterous for their close proximity.

"Oh, thank god," Robin dry-sobs, making grabby hands for the pie.

But Richard snatches it up, playing a one-sided game of keep-away that Robin doesn't even attempt to buy into. He lowers his hand with a swooping flourish, looking a little disappointed.

"Anything's better than the in-laws' dry fruit pudding," he laughs as they both examine the dessert.

"Come on," Robin says, grabbing Steve's hand and yanking him towards the stairs, "This Father's Day's theme is Richard Buckley-Approved Shirts, I've already got one ready for you. It's yellow. You'll love it."

[readaspecbooks]

Take the A!

A Monthly Book Club for Reading Aspec Books

The monthly aspec book club is here! Whether you're ace-spec, aro-spec, a combination, or neither, join us in reading a variety of reads featuring a-spec main characters across genres. With no set meeting dates and discussions segmented by chapter spans, you can read and discuss these stories at your own pace. Our selection process also seeks to ensure that each member gets to provide direct input when deciding each month's reads.

More information below the cut; Discord invite in the reblogs.

Signal boosts allowed and appreciated! :)

Our Mission Statement

Take the A is a book club focused on reading fiction books across genres with characters on the ace/aro-spectrum to help readers discover the wide variety of stories that feature these often overlooked identities. You do not have to be aspec to join, simply excited to read and discover new stories.

How It Works

Each month's read will be selected by a process consisting of a nomination and a voting round. Members have three opportunities to contribute to the selection process: (1) by nominating a book, (2) by reacting to nominations, and (3) by voting on finalists. Books can consist of novels, novellas, graphic novels, and webcomics; nonfiction reads, anthologies, and collections will not be considered at this time. When the month begins, channels will be opened segmenting the books into their parts, usually defaulting to three sets of chapters. Throughout the month, readers can participate in commentary and suggestions within these channels as they progress through the read at their own pace. Channels for previous reads will remain open for a three-month* period after the month finishes, allowing readers to go back if they missed it or continue discussion if they desire. *Subject to change depending on activity levels, community wants and needs, etc.

Kicking off February

In order to start slow for February (and to prevent people from having to scramble to find a book last minute), there will be no nominations or overarching read for the month. Instead, five free read aro short stories from across the internet will be voted on by users, ending February 4 at 8 PM ET. The first Nomination phase will begin for March in mid-February.

The link to the Discord and initial taglist is in the notes. Feel free to follow this account for group updates and book recs! Ask box is open for questions.

[jeleynai]

Hey there, I adore your art, thank you for sharing it and joining us on tumblr. Your Ghoap art makes me feel so soft.

I am curious about your rendering process. I like how your pieces are textured and coloured and the 3 dimensionality of it, is there a chance you'd be open to sharing some of the steps you take to get from sketch to the finished product? For example what methods (if greyscale, selection tool, etc.) and brushes you use? How you pick your colours?

No pressure in answering this of course, I am just glad to see what you'll be up to in the future.

Hellooooo thank you so much for your kind words!! I've actually been getting so many nice notes from people, I'm so sorry that I haven't responded to them much, I promise I read every single one and shed a little tear of joy at how nice you all are!

Now to the question!!

I made a little step by step image of one of the portraits I posted here for you with a bit of commentary underneath! I'm sorry if it's the ramblings of a mad-woman I'm a bit all over the place sometimes haha (I'm so sorry if there's typos, please ignore them)

I'll also answer the direct questions here since I don't think I addressed them TOO directly in the image.

Methods: I work with soft brushes and the lasso tool for 90% of my process! I introduce textures as well obviously but I try to let my soft brushes do most of the work. A lot of that 'soft' look people tell me my art has just comes from subtle colour shifts and general softness achieved that way over working with harsher textures. I generally like to limit my layers somewhat, especially with simple pieces like the one above. That image is actually just a single layer after step 2! It helps me not get too stuck on one area but I also just... draw on the wrong layer very frequently even if I name them so I don't use them unless I'm working on pieces with different layers of depth (fore-/mid-/background etc.) I do check my values *constantly* (I use the colour-proof setup in photoshop) but I don't work directly from greyscale. I go straight into colours from the sketch.

How I pick colours: I do try to keep my colour palette cohesive and a bit more neutral to start with. I try to avoid extremes at the start so I'm not locked into that too early since it makes that 'subtlety' harder to achieve otherwise. For those colour shifts I talk about I just pick whatever base colour I put down and then shift the colours accordingly! Brush modes/layer modes can also help but I definitely recommend looking a bit into colour theory before relying on them TOO much! Otherwise using them will also end in strange results. There's no direct 'formula' I use when choosing colours since every light scenario is unique and will affect colours differently. I would definitely recommend James Gurney's book on Colour and Light!

Last but not least! If you're more of a visual learner and my rambling is a bit much in written form (I'm so sorry, I'm very chatty I know) I also have a few painting processes up on YouTube c: So if you want me to shut up and just watch me struggle instead then here's a link to the painting that started it all, the OG ghost soap piece I did over a year and a half ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D76X0MT4W5U

I hope that all makes sense!! I'm still super new to Tumblr but I'm always happy to ramble on about art so! Thanks for reading my rant haha

[utopians]

I don't want to be that guy but that's not pseudoscience? The prefrontal cortex isn't fully developed until around the mid to late twenties bc the synaptic connections between neurons in that part of the brain are the last to develop. Source: https:// doi.org /10.1038/ s41386-021-01137-9

I think there might be a miscommunication happening here -- the pseudoscience isn't the assertion that synaptic development continues into adulthood, it's the assertion that synaptic development defines adulthood.

I have now read this whole article and the only assertion that it makes that's relevant to this discussion is that synaptic development continues "into the 3rd decade of life". this doesn't -- at least in my opinion -- give any meaningful credence to the idea that the brain isn't fully 'mature' until this point, bc this idea relies on the assumption that 'maturity' is a static biochemical state that the brain organically reaches and not a complex interplay of life experience, societal conceptions of 'maturity' and 'adulthood', and individual variations in development/cognition in addition to the broader process of brain development. additionally, 'brain development' is far more complicated than just the synapses of the prefrontal cortex finishing development, and is a process that continues throughout one's life.

CONTINUED below the cut bc I don't want to annihilate everyone's dash with this but I have a lot more to say

continuing the previous thought: if we're measuring maturity strictly by brain development, then things get extremely dicey, because the brain continues changing beyond your twenties and throughout adulthood! consider this study, which finds that the age of peak performance for different cognitive abilities varies widely, with some peaking around 20 and others closer to 50. the brain doesn't reach a state of 'maturity' in its cognitive functions at age 25 that it then maintains consistently through adulthood, it's far more complicated than that.

essentially, while synapses in the prefrontal cortex keep developing into your 20s (curious as to where you got 'mid to late twenties' from as well; the study only references 'the third decade of life', which could mean anything from 20 to 30), the idea that this development means anything particularly concrete about maturity or adulthood is based on (imo) a faulty and oversimplified understanding of both the brain and what 'maturity' actually means in the context of society. if your conception of 'maturity' asserts that adulthood begins in the late twenties, this conception may be due for a serious reevaluation.

and the reason I'm concerned about all this isn't because I'm a pedant -- it's because this matters in our current political climate. conservative politicians in the UK are currently trying to raise the legal age at which one can transition to 25 based on exactly this faulty conception of maturity, which argues that trans people can't make 'adult' decisions about their own bodies until this point. this is wildly infantilizing and patronizing, and I imagine I don't have to explain why it's a problem, but to elaborate: adulthood and maturity aren't apolitical concepts, and the assertion that adults don't have the right to bodily autonomy because they have been deemed medically incompetent by a truly arbitrary metric is an act of political violence.

I highly recommend this slate article: it goes into this topic in a lot more depth than I do, and features commentary from a lot of neuroscientists who know a lot more about this than me.