#sparrow thoughts

[sleepparalysismonster]

If you take an axolotl and give them wings you have toothless and if you take toothless and take his wings away you have an axolotl.

I don’t care toothless isn't an axolotl and you can not tell me other wise

[sparrowvei]

(\ - ◇-/)

I need to write here more often but like actually.

Anyway, I had a nightmare last night. It was vivid, felt real, took forever, and emotionally visceral.

Nothing groundbreaking in terms of the contents of the dream. Standard "evil authority high school" dream, coupled with an escape sequence.

(Upon clicking Read More, several cutscenes will play in sequence.)

So I was in this school. Clearly a high-school kind of setting, and I was probably in either Junior or Senior year. 16-17 age range here. Dream started right smack dab in the middle. I'm in a hallway, and the very first thing I notice is that water isn't allowed for students. Like, at all. Like, water is treated as contraband during the school day kind of thing. I sit in a classroom after discussing how bullshit this actually is with someone else, and people are sneaking drinks of water when they think staff isn't watching.

Anyway, I'm in this classroom. The teacher in charge of this class is eerily reminiscent of my worst, most hated math teacher from 9th grade. Subconsciously, I knew what to expect, even if the dream-class wasn't math adjacent. We had to copy this essay thing on a tiny whiteboard in the corner above the door. I can't read it from my seat, which is in the opposite corner in the back. Time to finish this essay is something ridiculous like 5 minutes or something. I obviously don't finish.

Teacher comes by to inspect. I don't remember exactly how the exchange went, but it came to the idea of me saying that the whole thing was bullshit, including the "no water" rule. I get up and walk out, but not before spraying some water from a concealed water bottle at the whiteboard essay. The teacher is following me of course, to set out some kind of punishment and make an example of me. But she (an elderly woman, I remember her vividly) follows me unnaturally calmly. Like, all the way to the exit of the school.

I've very clearly had it with this entire school and its bullshit, and I'm just planning on walking out, thinking that legally, they can't do a damn thing to me. As I get to the front door, the teacher has been following me and talking very calmly. Before I can leave, she hits what is clearly a panic button, and even though I know exactly what that means, she still tells me (with an uncharacteristic-to-her-real-life-counterpart giggle, that stuck with me) that the cops would deal with me.

I leave, she's still following me, I see another student arrive in a pickup truck. I'm begging and pleading for my life (because police are now involved, naturally I'm afraid for my life) to have this guy take me off campus and somewhere I can hide. Home feels like a bad idea, because the school would obviously have my address on record. But I can't think of anywhere else to go, so I have the student drop me off at a payphone (those exist in this dream-world apparently, but I remember it clearly) so I can call my mother or older sister and figure out what to do.

A timeskip happens, because, dream. At this point, I should mention I had a previous dream about some kind of amalgamate "house" that my mother and older sister have and we all live together in. The previous dream this night (because my sleep is perpetually broken, but I fell back asleep super quickly this time) was us in this house, kind of a nothing-burger of a dream, I think my sister got a new custom PC or something, IDK. I was exploring the house, so I knew the details of it.

Anyway, timeskip to me back home. In previous-dream's amalgam house. I guess I called my sister, because I had to explain all of this to my still-sleeping mother, that the school was after me. I told her to not let anyone in, you haven't seen me, etcetc. And I hide. For hours. I'm in this weird not-dresser kind of cubby hole under my mother's bed, piling clothing in front of myself to be as concealed as possible.

It gets a little hazy from here, since the dream is winding down and I'm beginning to feel like I'm about to wake up. (Yep, this was a lucid dream!) Two times, I hear the headmaster of this school (middle aged man, deep voice but not imposing, not anyone I seem to know) come by, talk to my mother, and then leave. His voice gives a calm, eerily calm nature just like my teacher. It really comes off as a cult to my kind-of-waking-up brain, now that I think about it.

The teacher then comes by. This makes three visits by the school within the span of (in universe) like 4 hours or something. The headmaster did not find me, but the teacher did. I just tell her to leave. Technically, in verse, I recognize she's breaking the law, and has no grounds to take me back to the school. She makes some vague threat, but I threaten to expose this school for its "No Water Allowed" rule, and… then it gets fuzzy enough as I'm basically waking up completely.

I just know that my mother and older sister in this dream were firmly in the "fuck off" camp towards school staff, once I told my side of the story. They sure as hell were not accommodating towards school staff. And the dream didn't end with me going back, so we "won" I guess.

Like I said, the dream itself isn't scary in a bubble. But the atmosphere, the almost-but-not-quite Stepford Smiler teachers (Not brainwashed or programmed, but also super cult-creepy) and how emotional it all felt in the moment, combined with how vivid it was and how long it took, it just shook me I guess.

…

Then there's the other nightmare, before the amalgamate-house dream. Same vibe, chased by an authority figure, but it's like a boss type person at a shitty retail job, and ended with me getting some sweet Skyrim weapon that shot lightning (it was a 1h hammer but Our Mjolnir Is Different) so it got silly enough to not stick with me beyond me remembering it like right now.

[journalofabird]

What happened to the other 36 children that were born on October 1st 1989?

Why is Reginald Hargreeves an alien?

Why did Abigail say "Thanks for protecting me on the moon" to Luther?

Why was Jennifer inside a squid?

What happened to Sloane when all the others got to another timeline?

Without the comics, there are still so many questions left unanswered in the umbrella academy show itself.. and it's driving me crazyyy

[kacievvbbbb]

You know what I think is really fucked up is that this Ben obviously misses his siblings, his academy, soooo much and the narrative just..... doesn't care.

Whatever their problems were they were his siblings, his family and he watched them all die terrible tragic deaths before they ever got a chance to escape the clutches of their abusive father. And now he's stuck with this group who is insistent on seeing him as an asshole version of their ben that they and the narrative kinda act like his family never existed and that is so fucked up and such a missed opportunity.

[oken-art]

I've been blessed to draw this little comic from this quote post the amazing @nothoughtsjustmhaandotherthings wrote! just loved it so much haha!

[rottinginferno]

i had a bit of an idea

[jozor-johai]

Sometimes I think it's underrated how much of Westeros we see during wartime. Amidst all of the discourse back and forth over whether the brutality of ASOIAF has a "realistic" basis in real-life feudal history, I think the fact that we're seeing Westeros in a very atypical and specific circumstance should not go overlooked, and I think in that regard there are parts that are "realistic" to modern history, let alone feudal.

For instance, in regards to the complaints about how many women are sex workers in ASOIAF—I think that has more to say about the nature of the wartime economy.

War breaks out; as a result, the regular economy halts. This is the result of various blockades, as well as from the workforce being redirected away from production and towards standing armies—fewer farms are being maintained, and fewer still are making it across wartime boundaries. Another side effect, then, is the trouble when this economic situation interacts with the practical existence of a standing army: massive amounts of young men, either single or separated from their families, drawing disproportionately on the limited resources of the farmland around them (which is being worked at a less-efficient rate than usual to begin with).

The army—comprised of young men—creates a demand for sex that interacts with the overflowing supply of young women without stable income (since this is an incredibly patriarchal society and the men in their lives have been taken away from work for military service). Without better jobs available, and with the market right there, these women turn to sex work, which syrockets. But of course they would, and of course it seems like every smallfolk woman we meet in ASOIAF is doing it: because people have to eat and feed their families, and the fields to plow have been burned by war, and the people who would work them have either been taken for military service or killed by war. It's exceedingly likely that sex work wasn't as widespread before the war so the increase in the need for sex workers represents the failing economy—consider the overabundance of sex workers in ACOK King's Landing, which was under a trade blockade from almost all fronts.

Then, the pendulum swings back the other direction: this is an unsustainable economy and an unsustainable way to live, so there is a reactionary religious response demanding a return to the way things were before (pre-war, in effect, but never separating this from the "social ills" that war results in). The women are blamed for their behavior, despite being demanded by the men around them and made necessary by the economy, and so this reactionary response leads to a religious condemnation of the "wanton" behavior of women.

The religious response in particular gains traction because organized religion offers several very meaningful things that otherwise solve these problems. We see from Septon Meribald toting his goods that the Faith offers charity to the starving. We see with the Sparrows, and personally with Lancel how the Faith offers a sense of meaning to those disenchanted by this strife. We see from the Sparrows and the rise of the High Sparrow how the organized religion of the Faith also offers a means of returning power to the disenfranchised.

So GRRM is achieving something unnervingly realistic here, showing what happens to local economies under wartime and the lingering horror that is left behind—a scenario that is still true of modern war, even if Americans don't have to see it personally. GRRM lived through Vietnam, and the influence is obvious in how the invading American military practiced rape and forced dubiously-consensual sex work onto the local economy.

It's also realistic how organized religion gains traction in scenarios where disenfranchised peoples need sources of hope and methods of organizing to regain what little power is available to them, and how organized religion can leverage a desire for better times into moral condemnation that fuels its rise to increasing levels of de jure power. It will be interesting to see in TWOW and beyond where the trajectory of the High Sparrow leads these people (and what that says about GRRM's observations and interpretations about modern historical parallels).

[rebelcharmings]

raven’s road to getting tailor quick (taylor swift) EveRAfterS (eras) tour tickets: a mini twitter series

thankfully apple managed to ask tailor quick for one more ticket so now she, raven And dexter are going☺️and so apple is forced to thirdwheel for 3 hours. she managed to have fun tho even without darling!🥰

inspired by my post here and some of my own thoughts as a fellow swiftie who didn’t get tickets at first but now i do!!!

and here is part 1 of my fake tweets au !!

[macksartblock]

They were best friends

(bonus alt looks below lol)

[alien-bluez]

raahhhh guh. another lineup, s2 kiddads. i love them so much they're rotating in my mind like a rotisserie chicken. god.

design notes for them under the cut if ur interested!

Grant

blue sweater bc blue is symbolic of titanic ep (something borrowed, something blue)

his tie color is the same color as Darryl's hat in my design

Wears Frank's watch that Darryl gave him, even if it's broken he doesn't take it off.

Green creeper socks because it's a Must. He wouldn't be Grant without them.

Sparrow

curly hair he got from mercedes' genes. he grew out his hair like lark

has a pink flower tucked in his hair like my henry's design

his jewelry and clothes are mostly borrowed from mercedes, he got really into crystals and other things like that growing up and got closer to his druid roots.

earrings are a feather and an oak leaf maybe i dunno i'll figure it out later lol

tattoos! there's supposed to be a bird outline there and other plant/nature related stuff on his arm. I'll draw it out better in the future mayhaps.

colors are brighter, more lifelike cuz he's closer to nature and all that jazz.

Lark

his hair has strands of white hair because of stress/trauma/Everything going on

hair is messier, unkempt because he cares less about appearances and doesn't have time anyways.

darker forest colors, less in tune with nature than sparrow.

his pants are the same color as my Henry's shorts :0) i needed a connection somewhere to his parents, and it just had to be henry.

Terry Jr.

purple shirt because his color is purple to me

fish motifs!! everywhere! i hc that when he and ron get closer bonding thru fishing they'd get each other fun fish printed shirts or something. This was Ron's gift to Terry. The colors of the fish are color picked from my Ron's design.

Fish tail tie and the shirt is also split like a fish tail maybe.

he's the tallest of the kiddads forever and always

Nicky

he wears glenn's sunglasses on his head

he grew out his hair long like morgan's because it's like the one thing he still really has of her. has her hair type and he takes very good care of his hair.

still has the ripped leather jacket from his time as nick and various patches of bands he likes (didn't want to draw them out yet.)

blue shirt because of his time as nicholas/reminder of jodie. blue holster belt and pants are also blue for jodie association

[paystery]

if anyone deserves to have a cult it’s me. i’d be like okay guys let’s get into our pajamas and watch ever after high and giggle and they’d be like “yes sire”

[pap3rcrown]

sorry but can you imagine the rumour mil around the kiddads post s1 as they go back to school???

like picture this. your five classmates who went missing a few weeks ago have finally been found. or at least four of them have been, nick, who was already unofficially voted most likely to disappear didn't make it back along with his father and you aren't fully convinced that the other four didn't murder him and his dad. speaking of the other 4 they didn't come back quite right, and not even in the way you're 13 year old brain would assume someone lost in the desert for weeks would react. grant, who was always pretty chill, always good to chat about soccer or hop into a fortnite game became distant. he's always looking off past your eyes and now takes the once causal game very seriously. terry jr seemed mostly the same, but was very close to the rest of the boys he went missing with and no longer cursed out his step father every chance he got, which was a jarring change to say the least. lark was angry to say the least which wasn't a complete shift for how wild he was before but he was now more of a passing danger to those around him, so you mostly just leave him alone as his brother trails him with half baked apologies on his lips. but the weirdest part of all of this is that they are never at school, they all disappear with their dads for months at a time and come back talking about the kid who didn't come back???

i'm trying to think of a reasonable thing for their classmate to assume happened but literally not one thing is coming to mind

[kacievvbbbb]

I like to think that Mihawk and his boat are the living embodiment of Jack Sparrow’s broken compass. He just sets out to sea and ends up where he wants to go. He doesn’t crack open a map or a log pose once and therefore travels the most insane routes imaginable and arrives exactly on time, this drives the navigator of the Red Hair pirates and the marines assigned to tracking his movements visibly insane with jealousy.

The marines assigned to Mihawk trying to report his movements to Sengoku.

[journalofabird]

The more I watch tua, the more I grow to love Lila Pitts with all my heart. Literally carrying a whole lot of mommy issues, being impulsive as ever, trying to prove that she can fend for herself, pushing the people away that truly care about her while also craving a certain closeness.. (she's just like me fr)

Her incomprehensible but also deeply relatable character makes her my absolute favourite <3

Where my Lila Pitts kinnies at?

[queenburd]

“No, look, I’ve looked through this entire meager excuse for a story script, and it offers no explanation as to why we need to kill the princess other than this nonsense about ‘the end of the world’. Oh, I don’t know, this isn’t my area of expertise. I’m more of a—well, I prefer much cleaner stories about mind control and office buildings. None of this murder business. Well. Let’s just see what happens, I suppose. I’m not particularly picky one way or another with how this story goes. You decide, and I’ll do my best to narrate, yes? Alright. Let’s take it from the top.”

TSP narrator DLC route when

[baloooga]

Ghosting