#random thoughts with grace

[dreamaboutwhathappens]

i love the…. almost horror aspects of this album. all the references to ghosts and death…. and sonically, the unexpected shrieking in WAOLOM and the banging and screaming during “old habits die screaming” and even the way the tension subtly builds across the sixteen tracks and by the end you’re so stressed and shaken it’s like! losing your sense of self and feeling like you’ve become a monster is horror. and i’m sooooo glad she leaned into it

[t1oui]

awkward jason grace. jason grace who speaks more like a politician than a teenager. jason grace who secretly beats himself up long after he and piper break up not because he wants her back, but because he thinks he's supposed to want her back. jason grace who becomes best friends with nico di angelo. nico who isn't straight. nico whose internalized homophobia reminds jason of himself, even though he's straight.

jason grace who isn't straight. jason grace who might not even be cis, but who is too busy focusing on leo's curls and his smile and his stupid jokes to think too hard about that, at least not right now. jason grace who doesn't understand sex and who doesn't want to. jason grace who is the least cisallohet member of the seven, and who learns to love himself after spending years not knowing how.

[ace-and-the-rpg-horrors]

silliness <3

[dreamaboutwhathappens]

it feels like the sinister answer to “i love you ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?” because that verse in the alcott concludes with “i think i’m falling back in love with you.” to me it’s suggesting that maybe the person the narrator is speaking to is hoping that they’ll finally be pushed far enough to break it off, but in reality they were pushed far enough to consider all the reasons they should stay. the last thing you wanted (to be forced to try yet again) is the first thing i do (fall back in love with you, find a way to make this work).

also, not naming *what* the thing is suggests that the narrator knows exactly what it is and knows how unforgivable it is but doesn’t want to acknowledge it for fear of actually endangering the relationship. this song carries no anxiety about what the issue in the relationship is; there’s no miscommunication or confusion. the narrator knows exactly what the thing is, but doesn’t want to fully approach it, or even *why* they’re doing it. in other songs, the problems are named exactly for what they are and the flaws of the relationship are called out (“is it insensitive of me to say ‘get your shit together so i can love you?’”). the alcott, however, doesn’t want to put a name to the horror, and tries to see what could be on the periphery.

they still want to be met at the alcott.

what do y'all think "the last thing you wanted is the first thing i do" means?

[wanderingmind867]

I think it's clear Rick Riordan has a bit of a bias. I feel like Percy and Annabeth definitely get the most focus in all of his books. Everything connects back to them, nearly all his books feature at least one of them, and I could swear it feels like they get the most chapters in the Heroes of Olympus series. Once The Mark of Athena rolls around, it becomes super obvious. Our four narrators are Annabeth, Leo, Piper and Percy. The House of Hades has Annabeth and Percy leading one storyline, while our other five or six characters are stuck sharing space.

And I don't bring all this up to say I hate Percy or I hate Annabeth. I don't hate them. I just feel like the other characters deserved more attention too. Jason, Leo, Frank, Hazel and Piper are all amazing characters. But they each take turns sharing the spotlight, meaning that they're not getting as much focus as Percy or Annabeth (who always have a spotlight on them). For gods sakes, Jason, Hazel and Frank don't even have any chapters from their perspective in the Mark of Athena! And the House of Hades doesn't really give them all equal time either. They're always struggling to make their mark, while Rick plays up his originals and clear favorites.

So while I really do enjoy his books, I am accusing him of (whether accidentally or intentionally so) having a bias towards Percy and Annabeth in his writing. I don't think he prove me wrong, either. It's clear he had favorites. And the sad thing is: I actually prefer most of the new characters to Percy and Annabeth. I prefer Piper and Leo and Jason and Frank and even Hazel. They're actually a lot more compelling to me. So the fact that they all have to struggle for space…well, it really gets to me.

[backpackingspace]

Wait going off the idea that Athena keeps things from her favorite people:

What does diomedes give her?

[pixthefuckup]

npmd incorrect quotes... except they're things i've said myself. Grace: Is that a train or our lord and savior Jesus Christ? Steph: Being a bad bitch is a state of mind. Richie: It's the start of Mountain Dew, it feels so nice to drink that gamer fuel! Pete: Heads, we die. Tails, we live. Pete: Fuck, it’s heads. Ruth: As you put your spaghetti to a boil, stick your dick in some extra virgin olive oil! Pete (stand in for my brother here): You do realize you just screamed that in the middle of a supermarket checkout line, correct? Ruth: Ah, my impulsive brain strikes again. I'll just curl up and die now. Steph and Pete after the whole "LIB wants one of you to kill the other, lol!" thing: Fuck you, magic man! Any of the nerds: Do you think we could rickroll NASA? Max: If you say one more stupid thing, I'm going to rip out your vocal cords, chop them up, stir fry them, and eat them as part of my Pad Thai. Capeesh?

[paranormaltheatrekid]

hypothetically, imagine the axe men never killed the church of the starry children. Imagine that the citizens of Hatchetfield still worshiped the lords in black. Imagine that Grace’s absurd brand of Christianity had already been about the lords in black.

[dreamaboutwhathappens]

what a year the past seven months have been

[podcastbrainrotdad]

A thing I am coming to terms with (and you should too) is that adaptations of media I like will butcher my blorbos. It is inevitable, and it doesn't stop me from enjoying new takes on my favourite things.

Nothing will compare to the highly spacific image of a character I have in my brainmeats, and that's fine. I am enjoying this new and interesting guy who is somehow related to my favourite guy.

Anyway, for healthy media consumption "he wouldn't fucking say that" should coexist with "Huh, I didn't think he would fucking say that, but it kinda rocks."

[beelinx]

unfortunately yeah i DO have a thing for blonde guys and it’s horrible

[zukkaoru]

the thing about fem!dazai is that she would not look like that. she would wear the same exact outfits she wears in canon. she would not wear makeup. she would grow out her hair only because she's too lazy to cut it, and she would rarely actually brush it. (the messy look is part of my charm ;)) her nails would be bitten and picked at, and if she ever were to wear nail polish, it would have been forced on her by either chuuya or yosano. she wouldn't wear heels because she doesn't like pain. she wouldn't even have her ears pierced because she doesn't like pain. chuuya tried to convince her when they were teenagers and she kept coming up with increasingly absurd excuses for why she couldn't get her ears pierced. she wears socks with flats because it's more comfortable even though chuuya ridicules her endlessly because "don't you know how horrendous that looks". (why are you looking at my feet? dazai retorts is it because you can't see any higher than that?) the only times she's ever dressed up were for undercover missions in the port mafia, and she griped about being uncomfortable in her clothes and shoes and makeup the entire time. she doesn't even look at her reflection, so why would she spend hours curating the perfect look? she just throws one of her three outfits on and goes

[strikingchoice4731]

Elsa is more charming than all the Disney princes combined 😍

(And no one can change my mind 😌)

[ace-and-the-rpg-horrors]

i was sort of wondering why exactly i've been sympathising with Eva so much, apart from, admittedly, bias- i did start considering that due to that, maybe i'd been internally exaggerating how Wolfgang & Co had been treating her. but i replayed some of Chapter 1, and honestly? now i'm of the opinion that Eva was justified to be afraid of Wolfgang, even if what she did in response was inexcusable.

because it wasn't just that Wolfgang told the others to be wary of Eva (and Damon) which caused them to feel othered. consciously or not, he literally attempted to control their movement on at least two occasions- when he attempted to stop them joining in on the exploration of the pharmacy, and then when he demanded to know where they were when they reached the dining hall last.

in his defence, i don't think Wolfgang was being malicious in doing so, i reckon he did genuinely believe he was protecting the others. but in doing so, for the two members of the group he disagreed with, he actively attempted to further restrict their freedom- in a situation where they're all already trapped!! i'm not surprised that Eva, with frustration, mentioned during the trial how much she'd been watched and suspected- multiple times, if i recall correctly. of course it got to her.

but that probably wasn't even the scariest part for her. it was probably just how easily Wolfgang had taken a leadership role within the group and how willing they were to listen to him without question. only Diana really spoke up against him on one occasion and got him to begrudgingly "allow" Eva and Damon to tag along. i mean, on that note, the fact that Wolfgang even casually commented that he wanted group decisions to be allowed by him, following the minor incident of Desmond taking initiative and checking the room locks, was extremely alarming!! like i mentioned, i don't want to villainise Wolfgang, but it does seem like he has the tendency to be rather controlling, whether or not he realises it. i would be willing to bet that the herd mentality implication was done completely on purpose, considering that Wolfgang's animal motif is a sheep and the writing team have done the symbolism in the game so well.

for all this, i can understand Eva's point of view. i know that, as Wenona had mentioned, there's a chance that Eva didn't actually feel threatened by Wolfgang, but i personally am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. because if she was honest about being on edge, that would be a rather reasonable emotional response, in my opinion.

what else are you to feel when you're at odds with an honoured individual who effortlessly holds the power to turn so many others against you too and potentially put your safety at risk, if not terror?

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

not every character who does something wrong needs a redemption arc. btw.

[wanderingmind867]

I'm at the scenes with Cupid in the Heroes of Olympus series. As someone who's never felt romantic love in real life before (possibly felt it second-hand or something though, i can't be sure), you'd think i'd be desensitized to it. But no. Although i may not understand it, i know that the scenes i'm going to read today are deeply uncomfortable. Nico is violently forced into confessing, all because Cupid wants to prove a point. That point being that love can be cruel and painful. He makes his point, but it still sucks to read. But..at least nobody dies? And Jason is supportive of Nico? So it's not like he's alone? I guess that's the small consolation to all this.

But you know, Cupid makes his point in the cruelest way possible. But the message that love is a spectrum of good and bad and everything in-between... that's not a bad message. It's something even I can tell you. I may not know the difference between platonic and romantic love, but I know love is varied. Love is the emotion for profound happiness and deep sadness. Love can be scary. It can be aggravating. It can hurt; it can heal. Love is in everything and Love can be found anywhere. It's one of those core things, you know? Without love, you might not have all the other emotions. No wonder the greeks viewed Aphrodite as a primordial goddess. Love really is one of those primordial concepts...