#thanks for the ask! good insight

[astralleywright]

I think what I find absurd is that some people just don't want to engage with any non-supportive ideas around the gods. Like, we know Bells Hells will try to stop Ludinus, but the what's going to happen after?

Returning to the status quo, after Matt showing through his NPCs that a lot of people are actively harmed by the current systems, would feel kinda meh, to me at least. But it feels like some fans don't want anything to change?

no I think you're completely right, it feels like a lot of fans are very uncomfortable with upending the status quo and very protective of the gods in general. which makes sense, given that the status quo and the gods of the last 2 campaigns is what many fans fell in love with, as well as some of what may have felt like consistent internal logic of the world (gods are flawed but ultimately save people, and answer those most deserving!) now being challenged. it feels like a lot of people are really defensive about the idea that anything even needs to be changed at all, and also seem to lack the imagination, or simply refuse to, consider all of the possibilities that exist between "returning things back to the way they were" and "kill all the gods." any persepective more complex than killing every vanguard member in sight and shutting down any and all discussion of associated ideas is, to a lot of people, seemingly equivalent to wanting Ludinus to become supreme world leader.

of course, the way things were before doesn’t actually exist any more. even if you get every teleportation circle running again and every magically bound prisoner back in place, the world and its people have already been irrevocably changed. Keyleth mentioned there are uprisings and rebellions happening all over Exandria, people who heard Luda's speech and liked the sound of it (while almost certainly knowing nothing abt the man himself, the cruelty he's perpetuated). Are you gonna track down every sympathizer, every doubter of the gods? Will you rebuild the temple in Hearthdell? Will that change the minds of its civilians, or just reinforce that they were right to tear it down in the first place? How many people in Issylra have heard the tale of an angel of the Dawnfather himself coming down to protect his claim? And that the angel died?

You can't close that box. I hope Orym slits Ludinus' throat with the blade that felled his husband, but he's gonna wake up the next day in a world where his ideas, at least, still live. They don't have to be Ludinus' ideas, though. And they don't have to be his methods. But they're not going away.

[puppyeared]

Hey I’m new to the LMK fandom, why do so many people ship Sun Wukong and Macaque??

A lot of people like the hurt/comfort potential because of their backstory and because they’re just really good counterparts lol. Macaque even makes a whole play about their past relationship, which is where a lot of that fuel for the ship comes from and the whole “the hero and the warrior were like the sun and the moon” spiel that people love using for shits and giggles. There’s also a really strong enemies to lovers sentiment and i think it’s kinda sweet

Personally, I just really like riffing off the divorced energy. To me, these idiots would rather beat the shit out of each other than make up and I really really eat that up. Not just as a joke, maybe as a way to cope with their feelings like “I want things to go back the way they were but this is all I can do”

[wildpeachfarm]

I’m trying to put myself in Caiti’s perspective re: being aware of how many followers everyone in the room had. I’m around her age and if i was a creator at vidcon, trying to make a name for myself, and I was surrounded by these creators who had essentially changed the entire mcyt space and brought it to the general public i’d feel a little out of my depth too.

I think where George saw this as more of a hangout with friends, she saw it as more of a networking thing (such as in her response where she mentioned there was another creator she wanted to meet, and that’s why she came to Dream’s room). So i do understand where she’s coming from and i think it’s fair for her to feel that way

.

[bisamwilson]

Okay, fun SamBucky ask game!! Send this to five other people to keep it going ✨ Say one of your favorite things about SamBucky, your favorite SamBucky headcanon, or write a tiny microfic. Have a wonderful day!! 💕

Sam is proud to say he doesn’t flinch when he comes home to find the Winter Soldier on his couch.

The lights are off, the sun’s gone down, and Sam probably would’ve missed him if he hadn’t noticed his barbecue sauce missing from the top of the fridge of all things.

He should probably ask why the world’s deadliest assassin is sitting cross-legged on his couch, his hair tied back in a low bun and wearing one of Sam’s henleys and a pair of his old army sweats in a way that tells him he’s probably been staying here for a few days while Sam had been out searching the world for him with Steve. Instead he asks, “Did you use all my barbecue sauce? It’s polite to replace things you use if you’re gonna stay at someone’s house, you know?”

The Soldier looks up at him and shakes his head, wrinkles his nose, and Sam thinks maybe he should start calling him Bucky in his own head. “I put it in the fridge. It goes bad when you leave it out like that once it’s open.”

Sam blows a puff of air out of his nose, amused but not willing to laugh just yet. “Are you my roommate now? Any other habits you don’t care for?”

Bucky shakes his head again, just slightly enough for Sam to barely catch it in the dark. “You have a comfortable couch.”

Sam sighs and goes to the hall closet to get him a blanket. He wonders if being the retired fist of HYDRA makes enough to split rent 50/50.

[milkbreadtoast]

Apparently the TWSB novel swapped their title image and summary with that of the original QPB novel for an April fool's day event before... I asked a korean friend to help me translate the summary!!! it's so good and gives a lot more insight into ham ga-in's chara...😭

+ the webtoon's QPB cover art (by 해그늘님) for comparison🥺

This fucking company. In a world where you can choose and eat any flavor from 31 flavors of ice cream, the fact that I've aged 31 years and was still tied to this damn place felt like shit. (*this one was tricky bc it plays on how the verb for eating can also be used when talking about how you've gained a lot of years.) So i wrote my letter of resignation. My last commute home. I kicked my shitty boss's Benz without a care. And (after that) ended up in(fell into) a shocking world.

(and here's the TWSB novel cover and the TWSB webtoon cover for comparison💖)

[driftwooddestiel]

if you had to pick one youtuber to birth the second coming of christ who would it be

[fumifooms]

fumi i hope you know that in an extra of how laios' party is formed he is explicitly banned from getting a crush on marcille.

like i know you went in depth on the trauma he has because of humans on your laimar post about the succubus but please know that he was explicitly banned its so goddamn funny.

im crying laughing while typing this out happy laimar love loses 🥂

Lmao yeah 🥂

It’s a very fun comic! The marriage seeker mystery can finally be put to rest 😌 I don’t really think it changes much, that it overrides anything we knew or that I theorized, esp since we already knew about the party-wide romance ban, but the meme potential (and fic potential) IS so strong now that we know Laios was the one most targeted and distrusted of all… And trust was the biggest issue, romance brings nothing but trouble in their minds but the trouble they experienced with the marriage seeker was because she was disingenuous and manipulative and Laios was oblivious, and as time went on the party realized that Marcille was trustworthy and they stopped worrying about that particular scenario happening. It can def bring a new meaning to the "This is my succubus?!! No one can see it no one can know AAAAA" line though lmfaoo. It’s so funny and honestly such a win for aroace Laios

[thesherrinfordfacility]

LWA: Regarding the halo: we see a variant in the Job minisode. When Aziraphale does his "avaunt" speech, he has a full-body aureole, which unlike the halo around the head is /not/ an angelic attribute in religious painting and sculpture. The design of Aziraphale's aureole, with golden rays emanating from his body, looks like it was modeled on Marian iconography, as in the case of the Virgin of Guadalupe (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/635401). There are a bunch of other examples, like the Madonna of Humility at the Getty Museum, where both the Virgin and God have ray aureoles. I am not sure where the design team thought they were going with this, although it fits with the Madonna pose they used for that promotional photo of Aziraphale in his Job robes.

ahhhhh this is so interesting!!!✨ i had no idea before this that there was such a nuance between aureole and halo, and their individual meanings in iconography (and thats not even taking into account different individual depictions like mandorla etc!). given the - as ive now learnt - very subtle but definite distinction between the two, and their individual meanings in religious contexts, it seems reasonable that the design team might have gone to some lengths to research it similarly!!!

(and now i shall spam you all with research because i am excited and Must Share)

so as LWA, the oracle of all truth, has said - ep2 where aziraphale appears to crawley shows him with an aureole surrounding him, much like the multiple depictions of Our Lady of Guadalupe (above is the Virgin of Guadalupe, by Salcedo, 1779). other depictions/notable copies of the original however include:

(L-R: de Arellano, 1691, Gonzalez, c. 1698, and the original from cy/16th, upon which they're based which, as far as i can find, has no confirmed artist?).

and coming back to italian renaissance (which im slightly more familiar with), the following works show the same:

(L-R: Madonna and Child with Two Saints, Pisanello, c. 1445, The Last Judgement, Michelangelo, f. 1541, and Baptism of Christ, Verrocchio and da Vinci, c. 1475)

it is especially prevalent in christian religious art, but as LWA said it does appear to be mostly used for religious figures, and not necessarily angels or saints (most of those are depicted with halos instead). most examples, like the ones above, that ive found seem to be used exclusively for jesus and mary. in other religions such as buddhism, aureola appear to be shown in the form of a mandorla (an almond-shaped field) that surround enlightened beings, such as Buddha.

let's move onto halos; ep6 shows our funky angel removing his, and is shown in the form of a ring, emitting the same kind of light as the aureole. disks have been depicted in art from well before the time of christ, including in ancient egypt (ra) and in iran (mithra).

funnily enough, finding depictions of ring halos rather than disk/plate ones was actually quite difficult? either way - above shows Virgin of the Rocks by da Vinci, f. 1486, shows a subtle but clear ring halo over Mary's head. keeping with the cy/15-16th onwards for fair comparison, showing a combination of disk and ring halos:

(L-R: Branchini Madonna, di Paolo, 1427, Madonna of the Book, Botticelli, c. 1481, and Deposition of Christ, Raphael, 1507)

these all again are examples depicting christ and mary, so what about angels? i found the best example to look at is the annunciation to mary, as this was the subject of a number of notable pieces in the same time period:

(L-R: da Vinci, f. 1476, Fra Angelico, 1450, and Botticelli c. 1490)

all show gabriel with a halo around their head, as opposed to an aureole. the one that fascinated me though is botticelli; there is relatively little known about his depictions of the annunciation, but there are multiple - the above is in glasgow, there is another in new york, and the last is the Cestello Annunciation). however, in the first two, glasgow and new york, there is a clear feature of an aureole-type shaft of light coming from behind gabriel, and shining upon mary.

i certainly think that it's mostly representative of god's gift being bestowed on her, ("The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.", Luke 1:35) but the perspective of the glasgow painting almost shows like the light comes from a crack in the wall, and would suggest that aziraphale stepping out from the aureole as some sort of glorified portal is a mirror of this.

anyway, because ive rambled on long enough about nothing truly insightful; what is the point in these two different displays? well, from my research, it seems to be that aureola are used to surround the head or the body, and iconographically represent divinity, glory and, depending on the subject/context, enlightenment.

but given that it has largely been reserved in art for the depictions of the holy trinity as well as mary, to outright use it in connection with aziraphale seems... strange. in this particular scene, or part of his story, why has he been purposefully elevated to the same level of importance and power? we have no reason to suspect from the ensuing dialogue that god sent aziraphale deliberately in her name to thwart crowley, carrying her power... or did she?

the halo however appears to be specifically used for instances of depicting angels or saints (in the case of gabriel and various apostles in multiple artworks), as well as jesus and mary. so that to me would suggest that halos are somewhat specifically meant to represent innate saintliness and holiness, inherent divine nature. were specifically touched by god's grace and love, and were embodiments of god's will.

what this necessarily means in relation to aziraphale though, beyond him obviously being an angel, a representative of the heavenly host, and a messenger of god's will etc... im not entirely sure.

there is presumably no reason for him to be depicted with an aureole unless, as LWA suggests, it's to draw parallels to artwork where mary is especially shown as having one. but in the context of s2 (and the job minisode), isn't this a little out of field?

another thing - aziraphale does seem to be able to turn it on and off like a tap, suggesting that it's there in the narrative for sheer Impressiveness, to Look The Part, in front of a demon... so, is it only for design purposes, because cinematically it's bloody cool to look at? or is it meant to give insight into aziraphale's thoughts and beliefs?

with it, would he (in aziraphale's mind, bless) look intimating enough to thwart crawley's 'nefarious plan' with minimal effort? possibly, but i doubt it; im a pretty firm believer in Reasons for certain design choices, especially ones that would take a lot of post-production work to animate. so, could aziraphale have chosen to appear with the aureole, to be suitably intimidating, but after having his faith in god's will shaken after the events of job, chose not to manifest it again, because its symbolism no longer rings true for him?

[violinist-rachel]

This may sound rude, but why do you dress so formally? I like the style but it’s rather unusable considering how people usually dress. I like it though, it’s nice. That’s all.

"Oh... I was aiming for a business-casual look, since that's the accepted dress code for most of the places I work at, but perhaps I'm leaning too strongly towards the 'business' side."

[arsene-fixates]

for the ask game!!

gorgeous visage & soulful gaze

Thank you Tony :-)

this ask game

gorgeous visage ୧ ‧₊˚ does ur fﾉo keep photos of u in their wallet ? or do they maybe have a locket of ur hair ? what about u ? how much evidence do u keep of them in ur day to day life ? oh he definitely keeps things of me, but most of them are tucked away, small bits of me in each little hideout he has around the city. Scraps of my handwriting from letters we've exchanged, a couple photos -- candid and non-candid of me. They're in his hideouts because those are easily retraceable to me. But he has things on his person from me, gifts I've given him that he can use in his day to day, ranging from gadgets (e.g. invisible ink) to tonics to keep him awake on late nights. Those things can't be traced back to me.

as for my s/i, they don't have much of him, since he's someone who doesn't leave any traces of himself. So the items they have "of him" would be more like seeds of a cypress tree (his favourite tree) tucked in their pocket, glowing items in their room (he likes lights) and a couple cherry scented things (his favourite fruit) He doesn't want to give away items where people can trace back to him, he gets a little paranoid about things like that.

heh.. um. if you want to talk about me irl.. i have a lot of things i keep on my person, like my locket, the 2 pictures of him on the back of my phone, my bagtag of his masked and unmasked version, photo of me and him in my wallet, and on my buspass along with my keychain of him attached to it :3 i always have to have a piece of him wherever i go

soulful gaze ୧ ‧₊˚ they say the eyes are the window to the soul. u look fixedly into ur fﾉo’s eyes and see an emotion so raw and undoubtedly pure, so real that it fills your chest with something indescribable. what is that emotion ?

His eyes would be filled with a myriad of emotions, it's not just one and it never will just be one. Reverence, Vulnerability, Curiosity. Eyes that look so deeply -- so earnestly that i could almost reach out and hold it in the palm of my hands. One that says "I want to learn about you forever" and "will you wait for me despite everything?"

The kind of emotion that he's afraid to let out, of everything he's kept within him from years of solitude, the kind of emotion that would make him crumble if even a bit of it slipped out. an emotion safely locked away in his eyes that only i can see if i looked close enough.

[ducktracy]

Dropping by to say that after loving daffy for years but not rlly having the time to delve much into too many old shorts thanks to ur blog im considering writing abt daffy duck for my thesis (im a communication doctorate student) so thanks for sharing your journey with us!

WHAAAAAAAAAT THAT’S SO STINKIN COOL!!!!! AWWWWWWWW what an absolute honor!! thank YOU for leaving such a considerate ask!! it is always my pleasure to spread the gospel of the duck—especially given he’s such a fascinating, varied character that often gets so misconstrued… even by the very hands that made him!

I WISH YOU LOTS OF LUCK, whether you do decide to make that your thesis or just completing your doctorate in general!! that sounds like such a fun thing to major in what da heck.. EITHER WAY! this is incredibly considerate of you to drop by and say such a thing—thank YOU and everyone for giving this journey some legs and a drive to keep going!

[sunshine-showering]

HELLO since you asked about The Bear I'm gonna infodump in your askbox!

It's a show on Hulu about this guy, Carmy, trying to turn around his dead brother's failing restaurant. Carmy was like best-of-the-best in the culinary world, was a kitchen manager at the top restaurant in the US, BUT. Then his brother committed suicide and left his restaurant to Carmy in his will. So the show is about him trying to run this restaurant successfully while dealing with his grief and gaining the respect of the employees, who are also dealing with their own issues.

It's just a cool show because it's very immersive and artistic but like - not so artistic that it makes you confused about what's happening (if that makes sense??). And you get to know the characters so well even if there's not necessarily that much time spent on each of them.

Oh wow, that sounds kinda interesting? And intriguing to me as someone who works in the culinary industry because there is a lot of messed up stuff that happens behind the scenes and I don't think a lot of media really portrays that.

I did look up the show and realized I recognized it - I'm pretty sure one of my culinary teachers showed a clip from it to us when I first started school as an example of why the field is so intense. It seems like it's a good show and they really did their homework. And I think it's great that they would go into the personal lives of the characters and the mental health aspect of it.

I'm probably not going to watch it though because I already work in a kitchen day to day and deal with enough of that personally to want to relive it on my free time, if that makes sense, haha. Even watching a clip of it was enough to raise my blood pressure.

[commsroom]

Hi dropping in here to talk about Doug Eiffel to help you. I was watching Into The Spiderverse with friends and Peter B. Parker and Doug Eiffel are the Same Type Of Guy(tm). If Doug Eiffel became Spiderman he would end up kinda like Peter B. Parker. There’s just like the goofy guy who has so many issues and regrets in his past archetype. You get it? You’re the Doug Eiffel Expert(tm). I’m a little sleep deprived as I write this lmao, apologies for any confusing wording.

Doug Eiffel and Peter B. Parker would also be best buds i think.

Hope you feel better and hope this makes you smile perhaps!

okay, sacrilegious, i know, but i have never seen into the spiderverse, so i can't actually say!! that said, when my friend listened to wolf 359 a few years ago, she described her first draft eiffel design like, "it's like i'm trying to invent the sequel to peter b. parker" so. there must be something there. from what little i know, i see it.

[emi1y]

bestie do u have bipolar? the stuff ur describing is a warning sign of mania for me, good time two take steps to prepare

SIGHHHHH i kind of have sort of bipolar its just that my episodes don't actually last long enough to classify it AS bipolar according to the dsm 💔 but i still got these god damn symptoms -___-

[segasys]

”I would love to start getting asks if anyone wants to talk about stuff or show me things :]”

OK SO

completely unrelated to rainworld but there is this one show with this one character who I am super obsessed with. He’s so perfect. I didn’t really stim too much before but now I do it whenever there is a scene with him in it, even if it’s a scene I’ve already watched 28273662818262626 times. I wanna talk about him with the fandom soooooo bad but they all hate him and might publicly execute me if I ever admit that I like him. He’s just so sidhsnjwhensusgshja /pos. I want to marry him. I don’t think that’s possible because he doesn’t even exist but that won’t stop me.

yeah you go!!! No idea of the character but honestly I think I can relate. Especially on finding a character that evokes such emotions in you, it’s so awesome. This silly goober has taken over my mind and my only thought process is “EEEE DKHAJDHSJHDJSJ LOOOK!!” Maybe the fandom won’t execute you who knows, again I have no idea of the character or fandom, but maybe you can find someone who shares the same interest in him.

[singsweetmelodies]

hi <3 saw your tags re: you not having spotify, so here is the youtube link of the behind the grid podcast with pierre:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmgGYmIAwng

i'd definitely recommend it for when you have an hour to listen to it, its really interesting and the way pierre is talking is very mature and articulate imo :)

hiiiya anon! i meant to reply to this right after you sent it, but in a shocking turn of events, got distracted, LOL - however, i've just spent an absolutely delightful hour listening to this while doing the dishes. i've never taken longer to do the dishes, lmao, but it was such a good listen!! i agree completely that pierre was very mature and articulate throughout, and i just loved all the insights into the way he thinks and sees things. FASCINATING!!! also his emotional intelligence >>>

honestly, i was sitting here listening to the whole thing like "i am so happy to say that he's one of my favourite drivers because he is wonderful." this was SUCH a good podcast, really it was, and i may be almost a week late in catching up to it, lol, but i appreciated the experience so very much! thank you SO SO much for taking the time to reach out with the youtube link for me, anon - that was so very kind, and it's brightened up my tuesday evening a whole bunch. appreciate you so much!! <3333