#should i put this under a readmore?

[gentleralts]

i'm a genius

and if anybody else out there with access to a button press wants to make these pins for themselves i've included a sheet to print out under the readmore

as long as you're printing this in portrait orientation without margins on a 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper, this should print out in the correct sizes for 25mm buttons and 37mm buttons respectively

apologies if tumblr shrinking the image size makes the image quality not so great if you print this out as it is, i'd suggest putting it through a threshold filter so it just uses black ink

[agent-8449]

Part 26. <Shellshocked soldier image>

Gffuuuehfggfgggg. That was some amazing vocal performance for Arthur... still can't take John seriously though. This majority of S3 has been a wonderful arc so far; Arthur feels very realistically annoying/traumatized and annoying because of this. RIP Yellow though he was kinda awesome. RIP Matthew also.

Part 23. HEEHEEEHEE CANNIBALISM!!!!! Hallelujiah. Sorry John that you had to watch "your" body do that, imprisoned in a face that doesn't belong to you. It be like that.

Yellow has been hilarious so far. Like a little kid that knows nothing, and is easily impressed. Love him, he's more interesting to me than John tbh. Though... I am suspicious of exactly how much he remembers.

[jerejerejere]

Well.

I guess I'm doing this...collection of observations from the autiomaa mv (i'm not going to call it an analysis) tonight after all 😅

So the mv starting out with a really short flash of the tear-illusion shot, then some short bursts of him in 2 locations in the mv, followed by a longer pan on a cracking facade...

The light effects on the wall look like being under water, which also kind of replicated by the fabric of his coat.

The following couple of scenes establish where he is - aimlessly wandering in some abandoned house - we zoom in intensely, almost uncomfortably close to his neck and eyes - he's making almost pleading eye-contact. He is wandering further, through the house, arriving at and entering

A staircase through a door, which closes after him.

To me, this signifies his decision to enter esc. The staircase can take you upwards - maybe signified by the lighted glass wall above. But what we see is not him confidently walking upstairs but being caught in that hallway, traveling up and down the stairs. He hasn't reached the upper floor and is caught in limbo. Alone with himself.

The therapist scene starts. He slinks in, hunched, making himself smaller than he is, drowning in his clothes. The session also takes place in a warehouse but it's set up in a way that it might as well be an interrogation.

He is pleading again - spilling everything out in the hope he's understood. However, what we see next is him talking/singing to a mirror image of himself. Either to signify he is talking to himself because the therapist doesn't listen and/or only he himself can truly understand and listen to his problems.

We get the photo scene - that one has been talked about at length

And that flash seems to start a transition in the video from where flashes were mainly used as separating element between shots to actually flashing on him physically and more relentless than before.

He is transversing more rooms and hallways - followed and faced by dozends of flashes from cameras, spotlights follow and corner him - he can't hide or evade.

He keeps traversing hallways and empty rooms but he seems locked inside - restless and defeated at the same time - either visual for his mind that he can't open up about but also very much likely his real life situation not being able to leave the house in peace.

He longingly stares out of the window. This is where i'll stick my neck out and say they deliberately recreated the visual from his Vogue shot in profile. I can only speculate but to me, it's to put something into contrast, either between then and now/after or maybe between outside vs inside. I mean. Look at it:

We see him(?) as a shadow behind the upper floor glass wall in the light - he made it there after all but we/his mind is still watching from below and can't make contact with that person up above.

His dance moves get more and more erratic, a bit like someone waiting and slowly going crazy from it.

Watching the headlines with the therapist seems to upset him. They are projected in stark white and big - because they are important to him, because they are bigger than him or because he is watching his own life happening like a movie but not feeling any of it as real. Others can't relate to it because it's just too uncommon and crazy. He realizes this while looking at his therapist, seeing how could anyone ever get it who hasn't gone through the same thing - he'll not have a chance to get this across.

His dancing gets even more lifeless afterwards - almost swaying in a traumatized manner barely holding himself upright, especially after the therapist proves to be useless and making things worse even. (To me, it's not quite clear what the cigarettes offered by the therapist signify - pharmaceutical drugs/tablets? The only way out is returning to his old vices?)

We end a little like we started - with an intense stare into his eyes. They are not pleading. They know. They see. (They demand better.)

Aaaand that's it for now. (I'm sure there will be one or two ''AND ANOTHER THING!'' but i'd love to hear from you also!!!)

Thanks for listening to my TED talk <3

[torchickentacos]

i will always shout praises of bi4bi but given recent discourse I feel the need to say that I love bi4het too! I just love bisexuality in general in its many forms, and anyone who only likes it when it's 'queer enough' for them is biphobic. Bisexuals should be able to bring their LaMe CiShEt BoYfRiEnD to pride without being made to feel like spectators and outsiders to their own event.

[littleplantfreak]

Bofurin Paintball headcanons 1

I wanted to do everyone but I have work tomorrow and have been staying up waaay to late so here's Sakura, Nirei, Suo, and Sugishita! Loosely based on the paintball pic from the manga.

---

Sakura Haruka

- Has never played before but gets into it almost immediately. Also makes someone shoot him before the game begins so he isn't thrown off by being hit.

-He tries to be a solo player on his own team at first until he realizes he's a crappy shot if only due to inexperience. His communication gets a bit better when he learns to let others make up for his shortcomings.

- Accidentally almost shoots his own teammates about 5 times - 3 out of 5 instances were because Sugishita startled him while he was zero'd in on another opponent. The other two were collateral damage ig //shrugs

- Overall a fun guy to play with and he'd take hits for his partner if they're afraid of getting hit. Will likely tell them to take cover in one of the safer places on base while he runs around.

Nirei Akihiko

-Best on defense and making strategies but will follow Sakura into heavy fire depending on the situation.

-His best bet alone (at least his first couple times playing)  is to hide until they forget he's even there and shoots when they least expect it. He's waited half an hour to get one hit in but he definitely makes it worth it.

- He seriously considers coming more often just to practice at the firing range.

-When he's being chased, everyone in the field can tell where he is from how loud his voice is. You'd think they've got real guns with how afraid of being shot he is. He gets super bummed if someone (usually Sakura) takes a hit for him :(

-Switches up when he brings his partner with him and toughs it out despite him sweating buckets trying to keep them from getting hit. Nirei's so proud when they shoot someone that while he's praising them he gets shot himself.

Suo Hayato

- Super solid shot which leads everyone to believe he's played before but he's redirected  every time someone's asked.

-Big team player and will give advice to people without it coming out like a command which works well if he is stuck with more prickly players.

-Prefers having the high ground even at the price of being more visible. Despite this, he comes out cleanest of everyone.

-If he takes his partner he won't leave their side unless they insist on it. Pulls that super smooth move where he shows them how to hold the gun properly from behind them all while making sure he's touching as much as possible.  

Sugishita Kyotaro

-He's a little heavy with how much paint he ends up using so when he gets someone he gets them.

- Great at giving chase and the intensity in which he's hunting the other players is pretty wild to watch. If left to his own devices he ends up in the middle of the other team's base before the rest of his team has a chance to fan out.

-Once his adrenaline gets pumping he doesn't even know he's been hit until someone points it out which depending on the game style being played sucks for his team.

-Most likely to run out of ammo in enemy territory RIP

-Sugishita plays differently if his partner is with him mostly curbing his recklessness to have his partner follow him while he lets them try for easy shots and taking out any actual threats to their safety. He thinks its cute when they get excited that they've hit someone so he'll just keep pointing weak people out till everyone else is down.

[redstringraven]

last year i mentioned in a headcanon post that i like inserting jenna marbles jokes/references into like 80% of my tomfoolery, and because of that don will often tell klunk he can't do things because he owes him money. peach may have gotten her debts forgiven, but... alas.

image id under readmore!

[ID: a digital drawing of donatello holding klunk like a baby. klunk appears to be happy and is purring. don's expression is gentle, but irritated. he's saying to klunk, "you don't get to help in the lab today. you owe me money". /END ID]

[nightislandnoveltymug]

actually, proper answer now that i'm awake and have had some time to percolate lol. best thing armand did!

i should say this is kind of a tie for me because the person armand becomes with daniel is always going to be up there -- he didn't let him die, he gave daniel what he wanted, but more importantly he told him, and showed him, that he loved him, and just in general in their time together he allowed daniel to see so much of his real genuine vulnerability and cared for him and worried about him so much and that fucks me up!!

but!! the thing i actually wanted to mention is his homes! (this is maybe cheating a little bit because it isn't something he did, it's something he does, but whatever.) one of the things i love most about armand is that he's always creating these stable places and central points for everybody to congregate on. while a lot of the others are sort of nomadic and don't stay in touch and you don't really know where they are, he is always (as he says) "a canker in the very eye of the world". he's easy to find, he stays in one place and he uses his resources and his power to create these stable, lasting home bases and then opens his doors to others. he creates stability and then shares it in a way that really nobody else does.

and i think it's very interesting because this sort of stability is a character trait that (i think!) maybe most people would first and foremost think to associate with elders like maharet, or marius, when in actual fact, the truth is that neither of them has ever done that -- for their own disparate reasons they've always been highly reclusive, and have protected their own stability by staying out of touch with the rest of the vampire world, not opening their doors, and for the most part not helping anyone or intervening in anything in any way.

there's something fascinating and honestly poignant about like... armand, maybe subconsciously, running a household according to an ideal which (imo!) is based on marius, except that marius has never actually done that. not for vampires. and so in actual fact, this is something that armand has innovated; this actually comes from him, and is coloured by his experience with the covens (which marius has never shown anything but disdain for), and perhaps even beyond that, by his experience with the sense of community in monastic life (which really ditto).

i personally suspect that rather than praiseworthy, he probably sees this as ultimately pretty self-serving on his own part, because he has this longing for community that drives him to create these places, so he probably just sees it as something he does so that he won't have to be alone. and also, from the way he talks in late canon you get the sense that he rather sees himself as trying to atone, and as trying to emulate those who are better than him. when in fact he's doing something that nobody else is doing, and in many ways (imo) behaving more like a leader of a community than any of the characters that everyone else thinks ought to lead, like marius or lestat. not because they couldn't, but because neither of them has ever had the resources, capabilities, patience, and willingness to create something like that and then open it up.

and for a character who's been so lost, and has spent so much of his life feeling lost, feeling abandoned (and i think, right up until present day, still feels that way really), and has spent so much of his life looking for something to anchor his life to, without ever having the luxury of truly finding it, and having to just sort of go on anyway, keep living anyway -- for that character to be a stable anchor point for everybody else is something that really really gets me about him, maybe especially because i think he isn't fully aware of it himself.

[cosmicrhetoric]

What's different in the UK edition of monstrous regiment? Idk which one I read

ok the discovery was made by @bronskibeet and it like destroyed my world because i cannot believe that all these years i NEVER picked up the uk version. this is specifically about jackrum but i believe there's another switch up about mal that i don't have screenshots for....

MAJOR spoilers do not click if you're still reading. this is straight up from the last 20 pages:

US version:

UK version:

[rubra-wav]

Valentino Taxidermy

Click for better quality jfc what is this 💀

You as the reader fucking hate him so you kidnap him and cut off his wings. 👍 (I'm probably gonna write both of these because I have wanted to write gore, but like.. haven't found anything I would like to.)

Here's also the blood covered version. Decided the first one looked better in the end

OC shit/actual context in Dealbreaker under cut

Backstory/concept: Atlas (my OC), after freeing so many of Valentino's soulbound employees, finally snaps and goes after Valentino directly.

He tricks him into a deal with him, promising Valentino his employees back for 'something in exchange'.

Atlas does not elaborate on what that is, smiling warmly as he speaks honeyed words to the demon.

Valentino, not being able to clearly read the fine-print of the contract and just wanting his souls back, agrees.

As he signs it, Atlas grins, looking down and revealing his eyes behind the blackout shades he wears.

The red x's replacing his pupils and the horrifying glint of his fangs in the dramatic lighting of the meeting room are the last things the moth demon sees before a chain shoots from behind Atlas's and wraps around his throat, choking him out.

"Call me Karma as I enact retribution upon you, filth :)"

As he wakes up again, Valentino quickly realises the weight of his error.

Or should I say.... lack of weight.

Atlas has a giant ass room filled with butterfly and moth taxidermy so they go in his collection 🙏

[francesderwent]

what is stranger things saying about the dichotomy of ordinary versus strange? it’s more complicated than you think

1x01 Hopper tries to tell Joyce that Will is probably with Lonnie, saying, "99 out of 100 times, kid goes missing, the kid is with a parent or relative." She answers, "What about the other time? You said 99 out of 100. What about the other time, the one?" Over the course of the season, her willingness to entertain unlikely options is proven correct (pro-strange)

1x02 In a flashback, Lonnie skips out on a baseball game with Will and Jonathan tells Will, “He's trying to force you to like normal things. And you shouldn't like things because people tell you you're supposed to. Okay? Especially not him.” (pro-strange)

1x04 Jonathan tells Nancy why he does photography: "I guess I'd rather observe people than, you know..." "Talk to them," she finishes. "I know, it's weird," he says. "No," she says. "No, it is. It's just, sometimes, people don't really say what they're really thinking. But you capture the right moment, it says more." (pro-strange; verging very slightly into anti-ordinary because Jonathan doesn't trust people to tell the truth from their own lips, he has to seek it out and capture it.)

1x05 The infamous Nancy and Jonathan scene, Nancy says why she thinks her parents got married, "I don't think my parents ever loved each other." "They must've married for some reasons," Jonathan answers. "My mom was young, my dad was older but he had a cushy job, money, came from a good family. So they bought a nice house at the end of the cul-de-sac and started their nuclear family." "Screw that," says Jonathan. "Yeah," Nancy agrees. "Screw that." (pro-strange, starting to creep into anti-ordinary)

1x05 Jonathan explaining what he saw in Nancy's photograph: "I saw this girl trying to be someone else, but for that moment, it was like you were alone, or you thought you were, and you know, you could just be yourself." "That is such bullshit," Nancy says, "I am not trying o be someone else just because I'm dating Steve and you don't like him." They fight, he says, "Does that mean I have to like [Steve]?" Nancy says, "No." "Jonathan says, "Listen, don't take it so personally, okay? I don't like most people. He's in the vast majority." Nancy says, "I was actually starting to think you were okay. I was thinking, Jonathan Byers, maybe he's not the pretentious creep everyone says he is." Jonathan answers, "I was just starting to think you were okay, I was thinking Nancy Wheeler, she's not just another suburban girl who thinks she's rebelling by doing exactly what every other suburban girl does, until that phase passes and they marry some boring one-time jock who now works sales, and live out a perfectly boring little life at the end of a cul-de-sac, exactly like their parents, who they thought were so depressing." (this is a clash of perspective; Nancy is vaguely, defensively pro-ordinary and Jonathan is pro-strange and pretty-anti-ordinary)

1x06 Eleven confesses that she opened the gate and she's the monster. Mike says, "No, El, you're not the monster. You saved me." (her powers and her difference make her a hero; pro-strange)

1x08 Steve, the boring, popular one-time jock, comes back to fight the demogorgon alongside Nancy and Jonathan. (pro-ordinary)

1x08 Mike tells Eleven that when it's all over she can have a real bed in his basement and his parents will be like her parents and Nancy will be like her sister. "I was thinking, I don't know, maybe we can go to the Snow Ball together. It's this cheesy school dance where you go in the gym and dance to music and stuff." (cheesy ordinary school stuff that Mike wouldn't have considered going to before is now a desirable ending. pro-ordinary)

so the main thrust of season 1 is strongly pro-strange. ordinary people are blind to the evil and suffering in the world, and blind to the strengths of people like El and Will. Joyce is contrasted to the perfect prim Mrs. Wheeler; where Mrs. Wheeler's comfort and advice is useless, Joyce sees the truth and saves her child. Nancy and Jonathan butt heads, but end up being an effective team. there's just a little bit of ambiguity introduced at the tail end of the season: Mike doesn't want to escape or rebel against his family, he wants to bring El into it, and wants them both to go to the Snow Ball - the epitome of ordinary - together. and ordinary, shallow Steve surprises everyone (including the writers, who'd planned to kill him off) by showing courage and selflessness when it counts.

2x01 Steve talks to Nancy about the future: "I'm just going to end up working for my dad anyway. Is that such a bad thing? There's insurance and benefits and all that adult stuff." (the scene is about Nancy's fear of following in her parents’ footsteps, and so it leans pro-strange)

2x01 Will tells Jonathan that treating him like he's fragile just makes him feel like more of a freak. "You're not a freak," Jonathan tells him. "Yeah, I am. I am," Will answers. "You know what, you're right," Jonathan says. "You are a freak, but what? Do you want to be normal? Do you wanna be just like everyone else? Being a freak is the best, I'm a freak." "Is that why you don't have any friends?" Will asks. "I have friends, Will." "Then why are you always hanging out with me?" "Because you're my best friend, right? And I would rather be best friends with Zombie Boy than with a boring nobody. You know what I mean? Okay, look, who would you rather be friends with? Bowie, or Kenny Rogers." Will grimaces. "Exactly, it's no contest," Jonathan says. "The thing is, nobody normal every accomplished anything meaningful in this world. Got it?" "Well," Will says thoughtfully, "some people like Kenny Rogers." Bob, passing by in the hallway, says "Kenny Rogers? I love Kenny Rogers!" (strongly pro-strange, strongly anti-ordinary)

2x02 Nancy and Steve fight about whether to tell Barb's parents the truth or keep on pretending everything's alright. Steve says, "It's hard, but let's just go to Tina's stupid party, wear our stupid costumes that we've been working on for a stupid amount of time, and just pretend like we're stupid teenagers, okay?" (this scene is ambiguous, leaning pro-strange, because they both use the language of "pretend"--ordinariness is all a performance, a lie)

2x02 Bob asks Joyce, "What if we were to move out of Hawkins together? I was thinking about what you said, we have all these memories here and you wish you had enough money to move. My parents are selling their house in Maine, there's a Radio Shack nearby I'm sure they'd take me on. We could just..." He sees Joyce's reaction, and says ruefully, "My turn to be silly now." "No, it's just so hard to explain," she says. "It's just this...this is not a normal family." "It could be," Bob says. (this scene is ambiguous, leaning pro-strange. Bob means well but Joyce doesn't see his hopes as possible or realistic given the complications of their life)

2x02 Nancy drunkenly accuses Steve in the bathroom, "You're bullshit. You're pretending like everything's okay, you know, like we didn't...like we didn't kill Barb. Like it's great. Like we're in love, and we're partying." Steve echoes, "Like we're in love?" Nancy says venomously, "It's bullshit." Steve asks, "You don't love me?" (the scene is mostly pro-strange, but with a little ambiguity injected because we can see how much this hurts Steve)

2x02 Will tells Mike about his episodes, Mike tells Will about feeling like he sees Eleven. "I don't know, sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy," Mike says. "Me, too," Will says. "Hey, well, if we're both going crazy, then we'll go crazy together, right?" Mike says. "Yeah, crazy together," Will agrees. (pro-strange)

2x03 Nancy and Jonathan discuss the burden of carrying on after loss. "Maybe things just can't go back to the way they were," Jonathan says. "Doesn't that make you mad?" Nancy asks. (ambiguous! "the way things were" being possibly gone forever is a loss, according to Nancy.)

2x05 Bob deciphers Will's drawings, saving Hopper's life. (pro-ordinary)

2x06 Murray tells Nancy, "Probably, like everyone, you're afraid of what would happen if you accepted yourself for who you really are, and retreated back to the safety of...name? Name!" "Steve," Jonathan supplies. "Steve!" exclaims Murray. "We like Steve, but we don't love Steve." "We - I do!" Nancy protests. (pro-strange and anti-ordinary; Steve's only desirable characteristic is that he's safe, he's being set up as another Mr. Wheeler, the husband in another loveless marriage)

Bob tells Joyce, "I thought stuff like this happened in comic books and movies, not in Hawkins and certainly not to people like you." "Or you," she says. He chuckles, jokes, "Bob Newby, superhero." She asks if he's cold, he tells her not to worry about him. "It's not as if you didn't warn me, this is not a normal family, isn't that what you said? Kind of makes my idea of moving to Maine seem a little less crazy, doesn't it." Joyce says, "Oh, it's not crazy." (still ambiguous; Bob's heart isn't in question but it's still unclear whether he can keep up with the world he's been thrown into. his plan is to flee it, but is that admirable?)

2x07 Kali tells El, "We will always be monsters to them. Let me guess, your policeman, he also stops you from using your gifts? What you can do it incredible, it makes you very special, Jane." (pro-strange, anti-ordinary)

2x07 El tells Kali that she has to go back because her friends are in danger. Kali says, "There's nothing for you back there. They cannot save you, Jane." El answers, "No, but I can save them." (pro-strange but with nuance! the strange and the special have something to offer the ordinary)

2x08 Bob gets Joyce, Hopper, Will, and Mike out of the lab, saves all their lives. Mike tells everyone that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV club, that their teacher Mr. Clark learned everything he knows from Bob. (strongly pro-ordinary! not only is Bob a hero, but he's shown to have been just like the boys, and even though he grew up and became the epitome of normal, his legacy helps other little nerds)

so season two is more complex than season one. on the one hand, Nancy finishes the arc she started in season one: rejects Steve and chooses Jonathan, rejects ordinary and chooses strange, precisely because she sees being with Steve as buying into the whole suburban destiny that she now knows is a lie. on the other hand, the two main heroes of the season are Bob - Mr. Ordinary - and El, who rejects her sister's anti-ordinary worldview and chooses to use her strange gifts in service of her ordinary friends.

3x03 Joyce tells Hopper that the magnets can't be a coincidence, and he says "I don't think it's a joke, I think that when I asked you out, I think you got scared. I think you got scared, and now, you're inventing things. You're inventing things to get worked up about so that you can push me away, because God forbid any of us move on! Because that, that would be too much, right Joyce?" (the strange happenings are seen as an excuse to stay away from ordinary vulnerabilities; the scene is vaguely pro-ordinary, filtered through angry hungover yelling)

3x03 Dustin tries to tell Steve that he should date Robin, Steve tells him she's not his type: "For your information, she's still in school. And she's weird. She's a weirdo. And she's hyper. I don't like that she's hyper. And she did drama. That's a bad look. And she's in band? No." Dustin says, "Now that you're out of high school, which means you're technically an adult, don't you think it's time you move on from primitive constructs such as popularity?" (pro-strange)

3x07 Steve confesses to Robin on the bathroom floor, "The point is, this girl, you know, the one that I like, it's somebody that I didn't even talk to in school. And I don't even know why. Maybe cause Tommy H would have made fun of me, or I wouldn't be...prom king? It's stupid. I mean, Dustin's right, it's all just a bunch of bullshit anyways. Because when I think about it, I should've been hanging out with this girl the whole time. First of all, she's hilarious. She's so funny. I feel like this summer I have laughed harder than I have laughed in a really long time. And she's smart. Way smarter than me. You now, she can crack, like, top secret Russian codes and, you know, she's honestly unlike anyone I've ever even met before." Robin tells him he's not thinking straight, he says he's thinking a lot more clearly than normal. She says, "Look, he doesn't even know this girl, and if he did know her, like, really know her, I don't think he'd even want to be her friend." "No, that's not true, no way is that true," Steve says. (pro-strange)

3x08 Joyce re-initiates her date with Hopper, calling it what it is this time. If the world doesn't end, they deserve to celebrate. They deserve to move on. (pro-ordinary)

season three takes a step back from the focus on these themes or any themes. as in s2, Joyce tries to have the courage to seek an ordinary happy ending again, and again, experiences loss. the only person still grappling is Steve, who's coming to see more deeply the parts of "normalcy" that deserve to be rejected.

4x01 Eddie's introduction speech: "We're the freaks because we like to play a fantasy game. But as long as you're into band or science or parties or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets...it's forced conformity, that's what's killing the kids. That's the real monster." (pro strange, casually anti-ordinary)

4x01 Chrissy confesses to Eddie, "You know, you're not what I thought you'd be like." "Mean and scary?" he guesses. "Yeah." "Yeah, well, I actually kinda thought you'd be kinda mean and scary too." (this scene is pro-strange AND pro-ordinary! neither of them is what the other thought they'd be, underneath the "freak" and "queen of Hawkins High" facade)

4x07 One's manifesto: "Why would you cry for them, Eleven, after all they did to you? You think you need them but you don't, you don't. Oh, but I know you're just scared. I was scared once, too. I know what it's like to be different, to be alone in this world. Like you, I didn't fit in with the other children. Something was wrong with me. All the teachers and the doctors said I was...broken, they said. My parents thought a change of scenery, a fresh start in Hawkins might just cure me. It was absurd. As if the world would be any different here. But then, to my surprise our new home provided a discovery and a newfound sense of purpose. I found a nest of black widows living inside a vent. Most people fear spiders, they detest them, and yet I found them endlessly fascinating. More than that, I found a great comfort in them, a kinship. Like me, they are solitary creatures and deeply misunderstood. They are gods of our world, the most important of all predators. They immobilize and feed on the weak, bringing balance and order to an unstable ecosystem. But the human world was disrupting this harmony. You see, humans are a unique type of pest, multiplying and poisoning our world, all while enforcing a structure of their own - a deeply unnatural structure. Where others saw order, I saw a straitjacket, a cruel, oppressive world dictated by made-up rules. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before. Wake up, eat, work, sleep, reproduce and die. Everyone is just waiting, waiting for it all to be over, all while performing in a silly, terrible play, day after day. I could not do that. I could not close off my mind and join in the madness, I could not pretend. And I realized...I didn't have to. I could make my own rules. I could restore balance to a broken world. A predator, but for good....I could reach into others, into their minds, their memories. I became an explorer. I saw my parents for what they truly were. To the world, they presented themselves as good, normal people, but like everything else in this world it was all a lie, a terrible lie. They had done things, Eleven, such awful things. I showed them who they really were, I held up a mirror....To your papa, Eleven, you are just an animal, a monster, a lab rat to be tamed, but the truth is just the opposite. You are better than they are. Superior....If you come with me for the first time in your life you will be free. Imagine what we could do together. We could reshape the world, remake it however we see fit." (this is explicitly the villain’s perspective which it is clear we are not supposed to share, and so the scene circles back around to pro-ordinary. moreover El, our hero, rejects his proposal, and so we see that the heart of the strange doesn't have to be about superiority and resentment, and so it's also pro-strange)

4x08 Will's speech to Mike, about El and about himself: "These past few months she's been so lost without you. It's just, she's so different from other people, and when you're...when you're different, sometimes you feel like a mistake. But you make her feel like she's not a mistake at all, like she's better for being different. And that gives her the courage to fight on." (pro-strange & pro ordinary! ordinary Mike makes his strange loved ones feel like they belong; they fit together)

4x08 Steve's speech in the Winnebago while Fire and Rain plays: "It's silly, but I've actually...I always had this dream that I'd have this really, really big family. I'm talking like a full brood of Harringtons. Like, five, six kids?" "Six?" Nancy repeats. "Yeah, six little nuggets. Three girls, three boys. And every summer I figured all of us Harringtons we'd pack into something like this and just see the country. You know, the Rockies, Grand Canyon, maybe Yellowstone, end up in some beachside town in California, spend a week parked in the sand, learn how to surf or something." Nancy says, "That sounds nice." "Yeah?" Steve asks. "Yeah," she says, then shakes herself and adds, "Well, um, except for the six kid part, that sounds like a total nightmare." Steve gestures around the kid-filled RV and says wryly, "If only I had some practice!" Nancy smiles, and says, "All right, fair. That's fair." (strongly pro-ordinary! but at least a little ambiguous because Nancy tries to brush it off after.)

4x09 Max hides "in the light": the Snow Ball. its ordinary goodness is a haven against the darkness, which is invisible to Vecna who can only see the evil of the world. (pro-ordinary)

4x09 Jason tells Lucas, "I was wrong about you. I never should've let you in the door." Lucas answers, "And I never should have knocked. I thought I wanted to be like you. Popular. Normal. But it turns out, normal's just a raging psychopath." (pro-strange, anti-ordinary)

4x09 El tries to get through to Vecna: "I know what [Papa] did to you. You were different, like me. And he hurt you. He made you into this. He is the monster, Henry, not you. Not you!" "You're right," Vecna answers, "you and I, we are different. And Papa did hurt me, but he was no monster. He was just a man, an ordinary, mediocre man. That is why he sought greatness in others, in you, and me. But in the end, he could not control us, he could not shape us, he could not change us. Do you not see, Eleven? He did not make me into this. You did." (this scene is more ambiguous than his previous one--it's clear we ought to reject his extreme anti-ordinary views that make him want to destroy the world, but it's less clear what we are to make of the fact that El did reshape him)

4x09 Mike's speech to El: “I love you on your good days, I love you on your bad days. I love you with your powers, without your powers. I love you for exactly who you are. You're my superhero.” (like his conversation with Will, it's both pro-strange and pro-ordinary)

4x09 El uses her powers to restart Max's heart, focusing on their happy memories together rather than any anger - her power is more than violence, it can also be beauty. (pro-strange)

season four, things are coming to a head! the "normal" townspeople are shown to be afraid of what they don't understand, and prone to blaming the wrong person just because they're different - but if we look closely, Jason isn't evil, he's just misdirected. he does want to kill Eddie, but then again all our main characters want to kill Henry, and it just so happens that they're correct about who's to blame. Jason's biases are wrong, but his intent- Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good - is very much right and in line with the message of the show. Jonathan and Nancy's forays into anti-ordinary thinking are shown to be eerily similar to that of the monster haunting them - and moreover, Jonathan's solitary ways lead to him smoking so much pot that he can't even be there for the people he does care about. El remains committed to using her powers to help her friends; she doesn't want to be a monster just because she is different. and Steve finally reveals himself as the anti-Vecna, completing his transformation into the embodiment of ordinary. his prior classification as "babysitter", an unorthodox role for a teenage boy to choose, has been replaced by a sincere desire for the most orthodox of destinies for an adult man: fatherhood.

[hogoflight]

Consider that hugs from paternal / maternal / kourotrophic deities are so tender and warm because these beings are powerful and so, so destructive and could easily rip you into pieces or crush you into dust or kill you in a million different ways with less than a thought,

but instead, you are cradled like the most precious thing in the universe.

[hellonerf]

Can you do cute gore with japan?

this ones lowkey a fail so if i delete it cz i hate how it looks #sorry im not actually much into cutegore/pastelgore surprisingly even tho i guess u could argue any of my gore art counts as cute gore 🤷

[sunflower-chai]

Mannnn do you ever think abt how the most stable thing in Anakin's life was his connection to the Force

well NOW i am. let's summarize shall we?

shmi: anakin leaves her at age 9 and reunites with her at age 19 only for her to die in his arms

qui-gon: frees anakin from slavery, promises to train him as a jedi, gets killed by maul.

padmé: meets anakin in tpm, then they don't see each other for ten years. they fall in love, have a secret wedding, and a war begins. their marriage is one of brief stolen moments between battles and senate meetings. the idea of losing padmé in childbirth is so horrible that anakin falls to the dark side in order to save her, causing her to die of a broken heart.

obi-wan: promises to fulfill his master's dying wish to train the Chosen One. in the end he is forced to confront anakin after his fall, chopping off all his limbs and leaving him to die on a planet of lava.

palpatine: hey how does it make you feel to know that anakin's longest lasting relationship is with the guy who groomed and manipulated him since childhood?? personally i want to set myself on fire.

ahsoka: assigned as anakin's padawan against his will, yet they develop a strong bond. ahsoka is framed for murder and the bombing of the jedi temple. she is expelled from the order, then welcomed back after she clears her name. she instead chooses to leave, having lost faith in the jedi. they're briefly reunited before anakin's rushing off to rescue palpatine and ahsoka goes to liberate mandalore from maul. and then order 66 happens.

luke: vader finds out his son is alive after 22 years, asking him to join the dark side to kill the emperor and rule the galaxy as father and son. luke refuses time and time again, forcing vader's hand to violence. luke eventually becomes overwhelmed with anger, bearing down hard against vader and heavily disabling his life support suit. it is only when the emperor is torturing luke that anakin finally returns to the light, killing the emperor and saving his son. in the process he brings about his own death, but he is finally happy. he is free.

leia: vader has no clue she exists until his duel with luke in rotj. wants to turn her to the dark side in luke's place, but his dying wish is for luke to tell leia that there was still good in him.

and throughout ALL of that, all of those shaky connections, the one constant is the Force (whether that be the light or dark side). it is the one thing that has been present for his entire life. he was conceived by the Force, in death he becomes one with the Force, even manifesting as a Force ghost. there's a metaphor here about Christianity and God's constant presence. and this is why star wars is so special to me <3

[hockeyisforthegays]

did you read 264 and 265 chapter's of jjk? if so what are you thoughts? you don't have to answer i'm just curious about what you think because i feel like you have really unique observations

(love you writing, thank you in advance if you end up answering)

oh shit anon let me write you an essay. and by essay i mean a disjointed series of long ass bulletpoints. also im gonna be focusing mostly on 265 because as my friends put it i am "ceo of itadori yuuji" or the proprietor of the "itadori cinematic universe" so you could say. that i am biased

okay. one. as an overall thing. i wish that for pretty much everything . that they would just lean into it more. theres a lot of concepts im into but everything lately seems to be presented without exploration or followup. like im about to analyze this to shit but i feel like im gluing meat to a skeleton. help me out here gege

FOR EXAMPLE yuuji's ultimatum to sukuna. i wish. i wish there was more here. like in theory this is really cool to me. yuuji says You Choose Whether I Eat You Or Kill You. Will You Live With Me? Or Will You Die Alone?

I lay my Body down as a Sacrifice

but more so as a Prison

but most of all as a Mercy

the first to my Friend, the second to my Curse, and the third to the Person i hope is buried deep down inside that evil.

aaaaand then this is kinda undercut by sukuna's reaction to me. not that i need him to go full on mahito quaking rabbit ass on us tbc. but the stubborn non-engagement with the premise just makes me roll my eyes and groan. i wish gege had found a way to let this reveal SOME new or unexplored aspect of sukuna's character? one chink in the armour. one stray thought that we wouldn't expect to hear from him. something. something to latch onto.

this may be unreasonable also given that gege is writing in literally a different language but i hope we find our way somehow to the double meaning of the phrase "flesh and blood" btw. like. sukuna is yuuji's uncle and they shared a body. yuuji is trying to make sukuna come back to that body. theres something there i swear it.

sukuna, come home. we're family. you're my flesh and blood.

(while beating his ass)

like make it scary. god PLEASE put some metamorphosis stank on it. gimme that I Am You flavourrrrr

okay now also. yuuji's domain. i want to talk about yuuji's domain so bad. one thing i noticed was that he doesn't name it. at first i was pretty disappointed because im a weirdo and i love their weird word salad names, i love that e.g. fushiguro and mahito just bust out full poems on i guess instinct when they use their domains for the first time!! so the fact that yuuji didn't get one felt at first like he was being... slighted by the convention almost? but.

this is again a thing i think could have been cool if leaned into, in a few ways. ive just been having these ideas about how yuuji's domain is different from other domains, one of those ways being in its lack of a name.

first of all from a character perspective - yuuji's whole persona in battle is like warpath, tunnel vision, beat your ass shit, so it does kinda make sense that his domain would be just as no muss no fuss just get it the fuck done, in a way. once again. lean into this!!

but also, i started thinking about what we saw with characters like gojo and sukuna, and the idea of jujutsu as the art of elision. when those characters wanted to juice their big moves, they reverted rituals that included vocal incantations. that exact word salad shit. i started thinking - those word salad domain names are like, that, you know? maybe this is explicit and i just missed it somewhere. or i forgor. but perhaps invoking a domain's name makes it more powerful, or easier to establish, or something

(i so much dont want to reread to figure this out. RIP)

if this is the case, yuuji not using a domain name would say a darn something about his power huh???

LEAN INTO THIS. LIKE SUKUNA COMMENT ON IT FOR FUCK SAKE i know you are allergic to acknolwedging your nephew but its for the AUDIENCE'S SAKE NOT YOURS

gege i am fucking inventing lore for you to make it cooler. why wont you. come back here

but anyway. what IS yuuji's domain and what does it do. he learned from kusakabe, so it's at least somewhat akin to a simple domain, but we also know yuuji's body holds the memory of malevolent shrine - does that have any influence on how the domain turned out? it seems pretty... big, for lack of a better way of describing a mental projection. no other simple domain really HAD projections. are there no techniques imbued in it? what about vows, like sukuna with his whatever barrier bullshit? yuuji's forces sukuna back into the yuukuna body. why? how? we've seen how domains can make its targets abide by rules, what rule is this? sukuna also acts nonviolently for as long as yuuji strings him through illusory sendai, and i dont know if this is a choice by sukuna (which idk whether i do or do not understand as a character choice at this point) or if it's enforced by the domain somehow.

(I feel like, these things either need to be More or even Less clear. like i understand just enough to have burning questions. if this were more obtuse and symbolic, i would probably be content to ride the vibes, actually. BUT IM NOT. ANSWER ME GEGE. YOU'VE TOLD ME SO MUCH LORE I DONT CARE ABOUT!!! WHAT OF MY SON!)

anyway closing thoughts wrt 266 you may be able to tell from my Fucking Fanfiction but i have literally been waiting for yuuji's own fingers to become cursed objects for EVER. i was imagining scenarios while watching season 1. im crazy stupid about it. i hope i hope i hope this finger shakes out into something WORTHWHILE. and sorry again this is entirely yuuji centred my only thoughts about the characters who were in 264 is the frustration of the way they got sidelined so carelessly RIP

[vipervvitch]

Color Magic

What is color magic?

Color magic is utilizing the correspondences of a certain color in witchcraft/magic. It can help hone intentions in a spell, or establish the intent uniquely on its own. You can use it anywhere within a spell, especially to nudge it in the right direction.

What are ways I can use color magic in spells?

Commonly, you’ll see people use color magic in candle spells. People often recommend pink candles for beauty and love spells, because they associate pink with beauty and love, etc. What each color means, though, is up to the witch’s individual associations, alike every other correspondence. Since everything has a color, you can really use it anywhere. The color of the paper or ink of a petition, adding food coloring to a potion, using a colored rope for knot magic, literally anything. Even in the little things! The spoon you use to stir that potion, the body of the lighter you use to light the candle, the handles of the scissors you use to cut the rope, etc. Of course, as I’m about to say, you don’t NEED to pay attention to any of these things…

What if I have to use the “wrong color” in some part of a spell?

Say you’re doing a candle spell to attract new friends. You personally find a yellow candle ideal, because you associate yellow with happiness and friendship, but all you have is a green candle, which is a color you associate with money, and that’s not at all relevant to the spell. It’d also be best to probably ignore that correspondence with money, lest you attract friends who only care about spending your money or about the things you own, and not you personally. There are multiple solutions to this, some of them being:

1. You can ignore the color and focus on other aspects of the candle. You don’t need to account for every little thing in a spell, and if you don’t focus on the color of the candle and your correspondences regarding green, then it’ll have no effect.

2. You could overpower the color with other physical traits. Carving sigils and stuff into the wax might overpower the influence that the color has and give an alternative physical property of the candle to focus on that has a more relevant meaning.

3. You can consider other meanings of green and see how green COULD be relevant to your spell somehow. Green means go, right? You could say the green is allowing new friendships into your life that way. Nothing, imo, has a single use or correspondence.

4. But even so, if you only associate green with money, you could tie that in to your spell as well. You could attract friends who encourage you to have better spending habits, or have connections with people who could find you a better job.

5. You could look at the relationship that green has with other colors. Green, after all, is a mix of yellow and blue. You could therefore use it as a way to combine the correspondences of yellow and blue. If yellow means happiness, and blue means calmness, then green could bring you a friendship that’s both happy and calming. It’s also across from red on the color wheel. If red means angry, then being across from red could discourage fights in your friendship and make things easier.

These aren’t the only solutions, either. Witchcraft is largely about creativity. There’s an infinite amount of ways to approach spellcraft.

Subtle/easy ways to use color magic?

As a closeted and disabled witch, color magic is EXTREMELY helpful to me in my everyday life. I can start my day off with a little magic by deliberately choosing to wear a certain color in my outfit—even in places nobody else will see, like the color of my socks (which i like especially because I imagine them carrying me to that outcome that I want). If you paint your nails, put on makeup, or wear jewelry, that gives you many options for incorporating certain colors as well.

I buy things considering the color. I have a blue hairbrush because I want my hair to flow smoothly like water. I use a green mechanical pencil because I want to write down the correct answers.

If I can’t make an intricate potion, I can choose to drink coffee out of a yellow mug that morning to subtly enchant my drink to encourage a happy day.

Also, I have LED light strips in my room that I like to change to a specific color in order to paint my day and actions in my room with that magic as well. For example, when I’m studying, I like to turn my lights blue because I associate it with intelligence, memory, and calmness—and I don’t want to be any more stressed than I already am lol. I don’t do any chants or ritual work or anything special to “activate” or cast these “spells” aside from intentionally using these colors for those purposes, which makes it extra subtle. Nobody suspects that you chose to paint your nails pink because you’re using magic to attract more romance to your life. Nobody thinks anything about the fact that you chose to put on orange LED lights in your room because its the color you associate with your deity, and you want to include them some more. It’s super helpful, and extremely accessible.

[nebulous-nevermore]

ghost trick live reaction so far! spoilers for the beginning of the game ahead and all that fun stuff

ive gotten through the first two chapters so far,,,, there’s already been a kitty and a puppy. does the dog die is a yes but you bring him back so its okay. i want the black kitty that stepped on my corpse to come back like hi baby let me pet you pleeease

also i love that we’re pulling no punches with the killing people thing. there’s no beating around the bush with it which is refreshing. everyone’s dyin everywhere,,, and its not just the good guys we’re immediately right off the bat killin jeego. squashed. i would imagine tengo is in for a similar fate but like,,, man. also funny that we immediately assume that this is simply the right thing to do. not bc killing people bad or anything just bc a girl is in trouble. ik the real motivation is to find the truth and all,,, but its funny to think that sissel simply believes women can do no wrong

ray is also v interesting. the lampshade thing is really kinda cute im ngl. curious how he’s(?) gonna come back into play. he’s actin like he’s been around the block for quiiite a while,,,, but he must’ve died the same day, right? because the soul disappearing when the sun goes up stipulation,,,, that’s gotta apply to him too right? though i guess in fairness if he’s also got these ghost tricks. he may very well have been going back and forth in time and all,,,, and may very well have been around the block quiiiite a few times. cant wait to see what’s the what tbh

anyways im excited to play more tomorrow :D