#page 258

[beautifulbookishdisaster]

"Art is where what we survive survives."

John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed (Kaveh Akbar's The Palace)

[pesterloglog]

Vrissy Maryam-Lalonde, Tavros Crocker

Page 258

-- adamantGriftress [AG] began pestering glutinousGymnast [GG] --

AG: Hey.

GG: Vrissy,,, its the middle of the night,,,

AG: Oh, quit whining.

AG: It's not like I woke you up, right?

GG: Well,,, no,,,

GG: But thats beside the point,,,

GG: Weve got a big day tomorrow,,,

GG: And today was,,,

GG: A bit of an ordeal,,, to say the least,,,

AG: Yeah.

AG: You can say Th8t again.

GG: Do you,,, want to talk about it,,,?

GG: ,,,

GG: Hello,,,?

AG: I was just t8lking to Harry for a moment. Chill.

GG: Oh,,, okay,,,

GG: I didnt know he was still up,,,

GG: Its been awfully quiet on the top bunk,,,

AG: You two are Sharing, right?

AG: I 8et that's weird.

GG: Hah,,, it is a little,,,

GG: I havent ever shared a bedroom before,,,

GG: Not even for a slumber party,,,

AG: Tavvy, you are just a8out the saddest person I've ever met.

[chiarrara]

Quick question....

...does this shit mean nothing????? anymore???????

[croissantlover24]

PERSPECTIVE CHANGE????

Oh my goodness Caleb looked at you that’s so crazy Piper /sarcasm

[ratherhavehopewithyou]

Mom can you come pick me up I’m scared

[vintage-royalty]

"My own darling one,

I hate not being with you at this time when you need me most and when my place is by your side. I will be thinking of you every minute and holding your hand very tight and giving you all the courage I have to go through gracefully with this ordeal. Take care of yourself in every way - and the famous charm must come out. I hate, hate having you go away alone-but you are not really alone because I am so much a part of you. Maybe one telephone call or even two just to hear your beloved voice… Darling I shall miss you each second and you know I love you more than anything in the world for always my dearest darling David.

-Wallis"

Letter from Wallis to David written immediately after he left New York to attend the funeral of his brother Bertie on February 7, 1952.

A few months later, Wallis wrote to her Aunt Bessie about David:

"It is heaven living with someone with the disposition of an angel and a rubber ball quality to bounce over British rudeness."

[lucky-draws]

journal pages from the other day 👍

[oflgtfol]

when i talk and ponder about the different marvel universes with the number designations and number naming conventions i truly honest to god feel like a nerd. a geek even

[heahven-2023]

sep 17, 2023

i went to praise night today. it was nice to be with a group of catholics to sing in prayer 🙏🏼

[secondbeatsongs]

as a bi person, the bisexual flag brings me infinite joy and always puts a smile on my face, however as a person who has a Passion for Graphic Design, that undersaturated shade of purple infuriates me when it's used digitally

like, on an actual flag - which was its original purpose - it looks great!

those look fine! lovely, even! with the semi-transparent fabric, the way it catches the sunlight, it looks beautiful!

but now look at how it looks digitally

the pink and blue are so vibrant compared to the sad, lonely lavender!

and let's look at this statement from Michael Page, the creator of the bi flag:

(sidenote: he created this flag in 1998, so if his takes on bisexuality is different from yours, it's okay to notice that! a lot has changed since the 90s when it comes to lived experiences and the way we describe them. but, it's also important to respect his thoughts about this and the way he presented them, even if today, we'd probably not say that bi people "blend unnoticeably into both the gay/lesbian and straight communities.")

so in pantone colors, the pink is 226 C, the blue is 286 C, and the purple of the flag is 258 C.

but...here's the deal

Michael talks here about how the key to understanding the symbolism is to know that the purple blends into both the pink and blue. and on a physical flag, I think you can see that!

but digitally, it absolutely does not blend. it clashes badly, and looks oddly separate from the other two colors.

which got me wondering...what purple do you get if you actually blend 226 C and 286 C?

oh! oh, my god.

look at that! look at how nicely it fits between those colors!

look at it next to the original color scheme! look at how much more vibrant the purple is!

and friends. this is just blending through rgb! you get even more purple variations when you use other color spaces!

let's compare all of them:

(top: original, lab. middle: lrgb, lch. bottom: rgb, hsl)

look at all of the different purple options you can get just by combining these two colors!

if you want almost too-vibrant saturation, you can go hsl, if you want something more relaxed that's closer to the original, you can go lab or lrgb. and if you want to split the difference, lch is bright and violet, while rgb is there with its saturated but darker purple.

anyway, I guess I don't really have a point here? this isn't so much an informational post as it is Me Getting Weird About Colors, but I think it is a useful lesson about how colors look very different on screens compared to how they look on objects in real life.

and sometimes, I think it's okay to compensate for that.

out of all of these, this is my favorite bi flag:

it's the one where the colors were blended in lab color space. for me, the lighter, softer purple is close enough to the original bi flag purple, while also feeling like a smoother blend of the blue and pink

but that's just me! and it might not even look the same to you, since every screen is different, because technology is a nightmare!

anyway, thank you for coming with me on this colorful journey! I will now retreat back to inkscape and make pained sounds about inkstitch gradients until something tangible pulls me back into reality

[oristian]

I have been meaning to make this for a good bit, but I wanted to comprehensively explain why a rejected mating bond trope would not apply to Elain and Lucien and their respective bond. I see this argument consistently that the remaining plot arc can and does support a rejected bond, but that would not make any sense given what the books have offered to us.

ACOTAR WIKI, ACOTAR PAGE 175-176

In this world, a mate is synonymous with “soul-mate,” but on a level that is both more intense and deeper in connection. So much so that it is considered a “blessing” to find the other half that the Mother has so handpicked for that fae. A mating bond is described to be stronger than any marriage, and is the most sacred aspect of Prythian.

Certainly, there are instances where the mated pair simply finds that their bond was not a match that they both wanted. However, the only examples that have been given of such in the series is between Tamlin and Rhysand’s parents—due to an abusive male figure against the female partner. There may be more, but it is also rarer for such to happen. The actual understanding of why the Mother places certain people together is on the murkier side, as that has not been fully explored yet in the series.

Mating bonds can be either accepted, or rejected. However, while the bond may be rejected, the actual bond never goes away. There will always be a tug—a pull—between them and the males face psychological consequences of the bond being rejected.

ACOWAR PAGE 258-259, ACOTAR WIKI

The bond never goes away. In the case that Elain rejects both Lucien and their mating bond, it will, “trail her for the rest of her life.” If anything were to happen to Lucien that resulted in him dying, Elain would have to face that loss—the loss of half of herself—for the remainder of her long life. Vice versa with Lucien.

In the case of Azriel, he has a difficult time smelling the bond between Elain and Lucien—going so far as to not even be able to stand in the same room with them.

AZRIEL BONUS CHAPTER, ACOSF

Hypothetically speaking, if Elain and Azriel did somehow end up together, he would smell their mating bond for the rest of his life. There would be no peace for him. His partner would be permanently known as another male’s mate for the rest of his life. If he and Elain remain in the Night Court, and Lucien as an emissary for Rhysand, not only would they have to interact often, but Azriel would be subject to smelling the mating bond between Elain and Lucien. He would have to suffer through this for the rest of his life. What, then, when Azriel finds his own mate?

There is simply not enough time left in the series to successfully initiate and explore a rejected mating bond—that would have needed to have been a major subplot of the main trilogy and told from Elain and Lucien’s respective POVs. Both Elain and Lucien have one current POV in the spin-off remaining. Without exploring the aftereffects of a rejected bond, which would require another book solely focused on the consequences, it falls flat. If Elain rejects the bond in a book that does not also share Lucien’s POV—as this is the very first rejected mating bond trope across her entire body of work—it falls flat.

In order for the trope of Elain rejecting fate and choosing love with Azriel to work, she would have needed to fully explore the bond with Lucien. That would mean that Elain and Lucien had spent time together alone where they learned about each other, understood why the Mother chose them to be mates, and became further acquainted beyond the surface level. If Elain simply walks up to Lucien and rejects him in chapter one and chooses Azriel in chapter two of her book, that falls flat. Had Elain and Lucien already fully explored their bond and decided that they did not want to be with each other, that would be a different story entirely.

Elain and Lucien are both fully connected to the Koschei plot arc, and that will be their arc for their story. Elain still has not mastered her ability, Lucien still has a plethora of plot points to meander through, and neither of them have begun their healing process yet. According to SJM, that will be done together.

Elain and Azriel having a book, but Elain having to spend copious amounts of alone time with Lucien would be a disservice to their romance arc. Lucien being rejected in a book that he also does not share a POV in is a disservice to him as a character—the mating bond is just as much his as it is Elain’s. Lucien being rejected in one book, but turning around and ending up with Vassa—a human that he will outlive—is a disservice to him, Vassa, and the readers of the series. A rejected bond has no place in the remainder of the ACOTAR series.

tl;dr — The bond is not going to be rejected.

[bettie-may-page]

Bettie Page Orginal Art #258

Artist: Unknown

Source: Internet

[ask-the-meteor-crew]

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[homestuckreplay]

If WV And PM Have No Fans I Must Be Dead

(page 1032-1039)

The mirroring of Jade (Prospit; dreaming) and Jade (Earth; robot) has been expanded to also mirror PM (Earth; years in the future) and PM??? (Prospit; now) with more identically-composed panels. It is actually a really smooth transition, and I do think that having time to sit between updates makes it easy to keep track of different versions of the same character, where and when they are, and how they can interact. I’ve seen in forum threads that some people have blasted through the first 1000 pages in a day as they discover the story which must feel like a very steep and confusing learning curve (even if it’s technically more accurate for representing the kids’ story, which for them is still a single day).

The imps in John’s house all look similar enough that this could be a fakeout, and this Prospit white chess piece is not PM, but they have the same build and eyes (see above from pages 723, 844 and 1033). Whether or not this is PM, I love their design. The blue/green stripes hippie two piece with matching hat feels like something I would see on a middle aged woman at a music festival who turns out to be the loveliest person I’ve ever met. But back in Homestuck the angle on page 1033 makes it look like PM(?) has boobs which, cmon, they are a bug/chess piece and I’ve never seen a busty chess piece and this is the laziest possible way to indicate a character is female.

I really do love these futuretime folks like WV and PM, I think their story is so interesting. They’re aliens, they’re bugs, they’re chess pieces, they’re video game NPCs, they’re time travelers, they’re irresolute wanderers through the wasteland, they’re the fabric of freedom and democracy and they’re carrying out the orders of a mysterious thirteen year old girl from a different species who lived centuries ago. That’s fascinating, and all their quirks and strangenesses put them in contrast to the kids who – while pretty weird themselves – are fundamentally just humans on the internet, and so are more grounded much easier to relate to then WV and PM.

I don’t know if they are fulfilling time loops or trying to actively change the past, but they seem naturally drawn towards these bunkers, like they instinctively still interface with the video game world after leaving it.

The narrator also talks directly to WV again on page 1036, something they did a lot while WV was commanding John in Act 2 (p.258, for example), though this hasn’t really happened with PM (yet). In fact it better parallels Jade, the character who most often speaks to the player. Today she actually tries to command WV, using several ==> commands in her note – I wonder if he is programmed to respond to these in any context, not just via computer terminal.

But for real, it must be so hard for WV not to eat those tasty greentext envelopes Jade has made him. And Jade absolutely called this right down to the position of the clouds and the fact that PM would be wearing the postal hat. (I guess Jade doesn’t need to feel guilty about causing the bunker to explode if she knows PM will survive, and that has interesting implications for her perspective, if she thinks it’s okay to cause harm in the moment because she definitively knows it won’t have a major, long term impact). But her predictions are eerily specific, not only in their detail, but also in her knowing exactly what guidance WV (Mister Mayor!!) will need to carry out this plan. Her ‘the freedom of your people depends on it’ is a really good way to manipulate WV, as I’m sure she knows he would never neglect his critical mayoral business no matter how tasty the letter is.

So, there’s going to be an important gift exchange, and it might be relevant that this page drops six days before Christmas. These two were on different sides of the Prospit vs Ominous Planet war, but the hearts and spirit of giving in the note suggest a peaceful exchange, two sides transcending a former antagonism. PM reaching for their sword on page 1039 isn’t a good sign, but I’m sure that as soon as they see the mail, the critical mail business will take precedence.

A more dangerous antagonism comes from the mysterious Aimless Renegade, whose gun remains pointed at the other two. I don’t think either WV or PM has noticed them yet. More importantly, has Jade seen them? They’re not mentioned – or warned about – in Jade’s note, and so could be somehow invisible to her powers. This isn’t unheard of; Jade has ‘never had any sort of feeling about [the trolls] or what they want’ (p.1000) and says that ‘if [Bec] wants to be found, he will find [her]’ (p.942), so the trolls and Bec both have some defenses against her. AR could be associated with either the trolls or Bec, or immune for a secret third reason.

Either way, I’m nervous. I like this beautiful WV-PM friendship predicted by Jade’s note, and I don’t want either of them to get blasted with an assault rifle. So whether or not this element has been accounted for by Jade, I’m hoping for some sort of holiday miracle.

> PM: Draw sword; look upwards.

[darkcarnivalcomic]

page 258, chapter 6

finn i appreciate you going to check on charlotte but the teenager has just been kidnapped i think you gotta get back into action

[one-flower-one-sword]

Xie Lian tied up upon his own altar, held down and stabbed over and over while Hua Cheng is forced to watch helplessly:

Xie Lian wanted to wail with the most devastating sound, but his throat couldn't gasp out a single word - it had probably already been sliced through. He wanted to thrash wildly from the pain. It was like suffering the sum agony of countless lifetimes, and he didn't know if he'd be able to feel any other pain again.

He couldn't see anything. The world was pitch-black save for the nearby ball of ghost fire, which burned furiously. The ghost fire was growing brighter and stronger, but it still couldn't escape the cage of White No-Face's hand.

Xie Lian's heartbreaking screams couldn't be heard, but he could hear another heart-wrenching wail that seemed to come from the flame. Although it wasn't him, it felt like he was the one making that sound - its pain was the same as his own.

[...] When the flame gradually subsided and coalesced once again, the tiny ball of ghost fire was no more - in its place, the figure of a young man was gradually taking shape.

The young man dropped to his knees in front of the scorched, black surface of the altar. Bent over deeply, he clutched his head in both hands. He bellowed in immense, devastating pain.

TGCF Volume 6, page 257-258 (emphasis mine)

Wuming being torn apart by the angry battlefield spirits while Xie Lian is forced to watch helplessly:

Wuming seemed to have heard his voice and looked up. Xie Lian couldn't see his real face; he only saw that mask with its drawn-on smile.

But Xie Lian had a strange feeling that beneath his mask, Wuming was really smiling.

The feeling was fleeting, however. The vast black torrent and the screaming tide gathered to form a tempest, and it swallowed Wuming whole in an instant.

And in that instant, Xie Lian heard a heart-wrenching, blood-curdling scream.

He thought he had heard that voice somewhere before... No, he knew he had heard that voice somewhere before!

Pain. It hurt like he was feeling that same agony. It hurt like a fate worse than death. It hurt so much that his mind and body were being torn apart. It hurt so much he thudded to his knees, hugging his head as he screamed along too.

TGCF Volume 6, page 336 (emphasis mine)

only on my reread did I realize how closely these two scenes mirror each other. both of them are experiencing the other's agony as their own, clutching their heads and screaming because what is happening to the other is unbearable. the mirroring is especially remarkable because for Hua Cheng, Xie Lian at this point is already his beloved and to him it's "the worst suffering in the world" to see him in pain while being unable to do anything about it - but Xie Lian doesn't even know who Wuming really is.

and yet. and yet he reacts like this, exactly as Hua Cheng did, even though the only thing he remembers is that he's heard Wuming's voice somewhere before. Wuming is literally being torn apart, and so Xie Lian also feels as if he is being torn apart, even if he doesn't know why.

plus the almost poetic yet brutal irony of Wuming taking Xie Lian's place so it won't be Xie Lian being torn apart by the spirits in the sword like he'd been torn apart by being stabbed over and over by that same sword before - only for Xie Lian to then feel that pain regardless because Wuming is feeling it.