#the mothmen

[smile-files]

What is camp keshet about, if you don't mind me asking?

okayy!!! so, for one thing, the story has morphed a ton since it was called "camp keshet". now it's called "the mothmen" and has a completely different setting: a boarding school! it retains the butterfly/moth symbolism and imagery of previous iterations of the story.

in general the story has major themes of transformation, growth, making the world a better place (tikkun olam), identity, friendship, and love. there's also a lot of gay, trans, and autistic people here if you're interested :)

the boarding school, named "lady alexandra's academy for bright pupils", seems quite altruistic on its surface: an affordable, high-quality middle- and high-school education for everyone! but its corruption is hidden in the fact that it is supported by several wealthy donors… the school very covertly grants privileges to students who are children of these donors: it places them in an "honors program" which gives them perks, such as priority class choice, better dorms, and other things like that. they get away with this by having a placement test for the program, opening sign-ups early, and letting these rich families know first before other families, making it so the program always gets filled up with rich kids. the benchmark to get into the "honors program" is really low, so most of the kids aren't even that smart; it was really just a sneaky first-come, first-serve system. the kids in this program, rich and popular, are known as the "social butterflies" by their peers -- and, in addition to the aforementioned privileges they receive, the social butterflies are more likely to get away with things and be favored by their teachers, and many bully their peers. they also wear different uniforms than the other students: some element of their clothing (i haven't decided what yet) is white for them and brown for the others -- referencing cabbage white butterflies, a very common butterfly, and pantry moths, a very common moth.

so that's the setting! …well, what about the characters? for reference, the story starts when all of them are starting high school at the academy. also, i should note how racism is significant in two characters' backstories (lexi and shai) -- i obviously have no personal experience with being the target of racism, being white, and of course i want to tell stories about people different from me, but i'm open to critique about the way i go about things. i try to deconstruct white savior and white guilt tropes, for example, between shai and damien, and i feel like i'm successful in that, though i'd love to hear what others think.

lexi is quite the interesting person! throughout her life, she has always found making friends very difficult. she'd always be too loud, or too annoying, or too weird, and nobody ever liked her (a victim of classism, anti-asian racism, and anti-autistic ableism, though none of this really clicked for her at the time). the same friendlessness continued when she began to attend the academy for middle school -- this was only amplified by the corruption of the school, as many social butterflies relentlessly bullied her. but, weirdly enough, throughout all of this, lexi was never upset at the people who hated or bullied her -- she was just upset at the fact that she was lonely. well, lexi noticed that she wasn't the only one tormented by the social butterflies -- so she came up with a plan. she would unite many of these less-than-privileged students in a group she would call "the mothmen", telling them that she would lead them in a revolution against the social butterflies. she had no real intention of following through, and she didn't care about anything happening to the social butterflies -- she just wanted to have people liking and listening to her. she just wanted friends. there lies one of the strangest things about lexi -- for the longest time she didn't realize that she, personally, had stake in this revolution too, that she was also a victim of bullying and bigotry, that she really does care about the issue she's been pretending to care about. she starts out the story forming the mothmen, and spends a while just making them do meaningless tasks just to keep them around -- all the while trying to be all buddy-buddy with them, when, because they actually care about the issue, this is more like a job than a social thing, and that she's more of a boss than a friend. she becomes incredibly clingy to damien, and later noah (whom you'll meet in a bit); she gets called out for her bs by damien; she eventually learns to care about people and things, with shai's help, and helps lead the mothmen to an actual revolution. lexi is one of my favorite characters i've ever written: she's so pathetic and weird and cool, a ball of volatile, selfish emotions wrapped in the shell of a charismatic and caring leader. she's pretty awesome.

the next two characters really transition mid-story, so i'm gonna be deadnaming and misgendering them a little for the sake of clarity (using the names and pronouns they would be addressed by in the relevant times)… sorry shai! sorry noah!

noa was best friends with this girl named miriam in elementary school (i'm pretty sure the both are jewish and that they were at a jewish elementary school). miriam and noa were thick as thieves, as far as noa could tell, and they did everything together. noa was going to move after 5th, as her family couldn't afford any of the middle schools nearby -- miriam and noa made a promise that they'd only be friends with each other, that everything would stay the same the next time they met. well, noa certainly kept up her end of the bargain! noa resigned herself to not make friends with anyone else, and not change a thing about herself. this ended up being really odd for her, as she's a ridiculously sweet, endearing, easygoing, and easy-to-get-along-with person: many people in middle school wanted to be friends with her, and she'd like them quite a bit herself, but the word "friend" scared her off and made her distance herself from them (nobody ever really cared enough to look into that, though… it didn't take much of a push for them to abandon all investment in noa's emotions). so noa spent middle school completely friendless -- and, oddly enough, miriam never seemed to pick up the phone or respond to her letters. no matter! noa was still fine to wait for her (noa is a very naive and loyal person)… right? well, she was kind of sad… and she was always a very nervous and very sensitive person, so it was kinda hard having nobody there for her anymore… it was also hard, because noa was starting to feel that maybe she wasn't a girl, but didn't wanna act on it and break the promise of staying the same (she takes things seriously and literally… always purposefully written to have autism). all of this is still the case with noa by the time the story starts and she enrolls at the academy -- but a lot, and i mean a lot happens to change things! she gets recruited into the mothmen by lexi; she ends up actually befriending someone, hannah, after being terrified of the notion, and the two help each other get over their pasts and be their trans selves (now noah and shai respectively); he gets a weird gay thing going on between him and damien (though he's gay for shai and lexi too, let's be honest); oh yeah, and he gets to punch miriam in the face, who turns out to be the leader of the social butterflies, but more on that later. noah is such a fun character -- so full of love and sadness and fear and loneliness, with such a big heart that it's too big to fit in his body. i love him so much and he's so close to my heart for too many reasons to describe <3

now hannah… hannah went to the same middle school as damien. and that school was also full of rich bullies, though they weren't formalized in some group like the social butterflies. hannah always thought she wasn't a girl, that she was nonbinary, and expressed as much, but was relentlessly bullied for that and other things -- not only was she queer, but she was also black, and many of her peers were downright horrible to her. then she began to lash out -- being cruel to all of her classmates, even those who weren't mean to her, and threatening some into being her "friend". one day, though, damien -- whom we will later meet as a rich, quite privileged guy -- defended hannah from his friends' bullying. because of his social impact, folks stopped bullying her nearly as much, and she in turn stopped lashing out -- but she also began to idolize damien, who now was her first friend, seeing him as her redeemer, the one who showed her the truth of friendship. hannah began to morph herself into him: she hid away all of the stuff that was the bullies' target -- her transness, her blackness, her righteous anger and rage even (damien, being cis, white, and calm, is none of those things). she assimilated in every possible way, and continues to do so upon attending the academy. hannah and damien had become good friends; he let her swap the part of the academy uniform that was white for him and brown for her such that she could really assimilate and pretend to be a social butterfly. and while she does end up getting some of the privileges (not like that was her goal in pretending), she still faces some racism from her social butterfly peers. all the while though, hannah's being overly kind and sweet, trying to be friendly with everyone, and perhaps be who damien was to her, to someone else -- this someone else ends up being noa, whom she ends up discovering is really weird about friend stuff while trying obsessively hard to be his friend. through wanting to help noa with her self, hannah realizes she has to help herself with her own, and with him find themselves. they end up calling themselves "shai", the hebrew word for gift which noah taught them. they end up working through their complicated relationship with damien, leave behind the assimilation, and get through to lexi who has had similar problems making friends. there's also other stuff going on with her too, with the mothmen and the social butterflies. god i love shai! augh! such a complex character!! as mentioned before, this covers a lot of territory i'm not personally familiar with, so please tell me if you have any issues!!! yay!!!

next is damien!! in middle school, he was the perfect kid: rich, popular, good grades, handsome, you name it. well, he was perfect to everyone else, at least… damien hated himself! he saw every flaw in himself, such as his emotional detachment, coldness, and inaction, and hated how nobody else did, instead loving him unconditionally. nobody ever got upset at him for anything… he had a very strong moral compass, and was appalled that he wasn't facing repercussions for not doing the right thing. normally, he never stopped his friends from bullying others just because he wouldn't let himself emotionally engage with either them or the victim (he spends a lot of time emotionally engaged with himself, however) -- when he pushed himself to stand up for hannah, it was mostly just to get rid of his own guilt for never doing the right thing in other, similar situations. he ends up being caught between guilt/self-pitying and actual investment in the right thing -- he realizes the former in himself, and ends up feeling extra guilty for that! oh yeah, he's also kinda ashamed about being gay and not facing any homophobia cuz of his privilege… but anyway, out of anger towards his fellow rich elite, and out of shame for being a part of it, damien begins to take on an edgy persona, pushing himself away from the aesthetic of privilege he used to have by default. he swaps uniforms with hannah at the academy so he can be free of the elite class there, the social butterflies, and in so doing can fight them on the side of the mothmen. damien remains good friends with hannah, but their relationship is inhibited by the fact that hannah idolizes him and he pities her. he ends up being pushed away from his self-centered reasons for fighting bigotry/the social butterflies (i.e. guilt) when he discovers lexi's self-centered reasons for starting the mothmen to begin with (he's outed as being secretly rich around this time, lol) -- his relationships with shai and noah also develop, pushing him more into actually wanting to change things for the better, including himself, without all of the moping and pity parties, and he ends up helping a lot in getting the revolution going. i'd say i'm more invested in the others than i am in him, though i still love him immensely and think he's super fun! guy who's always pissed off for the wrong reason…

last but not least is miriam!!!!! (sorry, more deadnaming!) after noa moved, miriam completely forgot about her -- miriam was never actually that close to noa, despite what noa (and miriam herself) thought in elementary school, and the promise completely slipped her mind (not that it was ever a reasonable one -- but the principle certainly escaped her too). she made new friends and completely changing herself, including transitioning into a guy (jonah) right before high school (worth noting is that he also fell out of touch with his new middle school friends before going to high school, as he wasn't that close with them ever). jonah's father was a huge donor of the academy, making it easy for it all to be very hush-hush about him being trans; aside from family and a few staff members, everyone at school knows him to be biologically male. because of the importance of his dad, and his general richness, jonah becomes head of the social butterflies at the academy. and wouldn't you know it? he actually gets really close to them! he has a small, formalized in-group, and he genuinely gets along with all of them. because of this, he becomes incredibly defensive of his being trans, worried he'd lose them if they find out -- this comes to a head when he sees noa at the academy (whom he instantly recognizes, as she looks the exact same), who's now a threat, as she knew him as a girl: if she recognized him, it'd be game over. because of this, jonah starts to harbor some strange kind of hatred for her, as if she represents his past (as well as his hidden transness) -- all the moreso as he watches him transition into a guy too. i don't have it all fully fleshed out, but there's a lot of internalized transphobia going on here, and he has his friends pick on him because of that. i imagine throughout this whole thing, hannah ends up friends with jonah as well, and a lot of weird stuff happens there as well… maybe (before recognizing themselves as nonbinary) she sees jonah pick on noah (beginning to transition) one too many times and she lashes out, both revealing the social butterfly ruse and the transness (this is an idea i thought of just now)… and there's stuff between jonah and damien as well -- jonah has an inkling damien's secretly rich, and keeps trying to get him to associate with the social butterflies, for one thing. and, of course, lexi at first pretends to hate jonah's guts, but partly through seeing the horrible things noah and shai face because of him, she realizes how truly terrible he is and everything. i don't know if i want jonah to be redeemed or anything, but he's certainly a complex character. the horrors of internalized transphobia! ahh!! he gets beat up by noah during the revolution though, so it's okay. if he does get redeemed to any extent, maybe he tries to get his dad to do something to fix the school? i don't know? i'd have to think about it. either way, a fun character!!

yay! so that's that. a bunch of gay weirdos go about ending the reign of bigots at their school in multiple bizarre ways, if they're actually going about it at all

[kimeako]

Better late than never, here is Anbis and Blueberry's adventure at Calgary Comic Convention!

They were sad to go home but we brought a whole bunch of new friends back with us!

[radiophd]

the mothmen -- temptation

[bigbrotherw]

He and Mr. Grips are the Mothmen Chronicles.

That fuckin picture of that guy at agraveyard holdin like, a cup or smt, with a mothman sized moth with him, both staring directly at the camera is somehow the funniest image but I haven’t been able to find it in months

[derbybeardo]

now re-encoding: "An On-U Journey Through Time & Space" by various artists (2015 EU 10" 45 rpm release)

Side AA only

[thevellaunderground]

The Pulse of Post-Punk: Cities That Defined a Movement

The post-punk era, a genre that emerged in the late 1970s, was more than just a musical revolution; it was a cultural phenomenon that encapsulated the spirit of innovation and resistance. This movement saw cities around the world becoming hotbeds of artistic expression, where music intertwined with social and political discourse. In this exploration, we delve into the cities that could arguably…

[differenthead]

Volume 256

Listen to Different Head, Vol. 256: "Compassion" (Jun. 10, 2023) byDifferent Head on hearthis.at

Download

0:00:00 — "X Offender" (Single Version) by Blondie (1976)

0:02:58 — "Modern Girl" by James Freud & The Radio Stars (1980)

0:06:16 — DJ

0:10:30 — "Wide Eyed One" by A Drop in the Gray (1984)

0:14:12 — "Compassion" by P.S. Personal (1983)

0:19:23 — "Together in Electric Dreams" by Giorgio Moroder with Philip Oakey (1984)

0:22:37 — "セソワ" by Rajie (1984)

0:26:49 — DJ

0:31:47 — "Un Hombre de Verdad" by Alaska y Dinarama (1985)

0:35:55 — "Blow Out" (Edit) by Saeko Suzuki (1987)

0:36:54 — "O.D. (Optimistic Depression)" by Melon (1982)

0:42:40 — "Do You Like Japan?" by Melon (1982)

0:47:39 — DJ

0:50:49 — "Oui-Oui (A Canadian in Paris)" (Disco Mix) by Pulsallama (1983)

0:56:39 — "Got To Be There" by Swallow Tongue (1983)

1:00:08 — "Mãoscolorida" by Os Mulheres Negras (1988)

1:03:48 — "Afghan Farmer Driving Cattle" by The Mothmen (1981)

1:06:11 — DJ

1:10:52 — "Close Watch" by Helen Terry (1986)

[hauntedtoybox]

miff mothman by jellycat (x)

[clovercoin]

Moth Fluff

MOTH MANNNN haha but not really! Just a weird idea I had of a mix of... moth and spider bug man? This fella can also produce silk, and they REALLY LOVE TOMATOES! Bug is available for sale on the CloverCoin Toyhouse! AJD . ART

[themanilafolders]

Park Rangers Are Aware That Putting A Mothman And A Jersey Devil In A Get Along Sweater Is A Temporary Solution

It’s not supposed to restrain either cryptid for long, it’s just supposed to function as a get along snack for when the cryptids roughhouse too much.

[sorry-but-no-sorry]

Part 10 of the Moth saga comes as a package deal!

Staring

-Mothmy Dimitrescu as a white witch moth / thysania agrippina

-Moth-er Miranda as a black witch moth / ascalapha odorata

-And the daughters who are actually corpse butterflies / purple emperor butterflies /apatura iris

@exhausted.tech

[smile-files]

ok lol sorry to post an oc out of nowhere but i just drew my character shai and they turned out too cute not to share with you all :)

[sourtomatola]

The moth boys from the my gift Fic, Moth in the attic

[teratophallia]

He brings you a flower. Wyd? If this guy ever gets some NSFW content you'll be able to find it on my Twitter (18+ ONLY)

[crisis-arts]

Part 2 of my pride mothmen! You can find a link for all of them in my Linktree and on my Teepublic and find part 1 here and part 3 here

[bugpinned]

Mothman and his kids (eggbaby, caterpillargirl, and pupateen)