#the recontextualizing is FRAUGHT

[flowerflamestars]

Robin fic snippet

“C’mere,” he murmured, rough.   Held out his arms, and it was just as easy as it had ever been. Breathing, touching Elle. His heart was beating, and so he was here with her.   Elle, who looped her arms and around his neck and pressed her face into his shoulder. “Still sorry I scared you.”   Jason was sorry he’d wasted so much fucking time.   Reeled her in by the waist in degrees, a hesitance that had nothing to do with how badly he wanted to be close to her and everything to do with her comfort. Elle fell forward with a sigh, briefly squeezing his sides with her knees before settling, sprawl easy.   “Tell me,” he said, turning to catch her eye, ignoring his own acidic, corrosive dread, ���About the Pit.”   She touched his jaw. Made a gentle, featherlight line down toward his chin.   “It’s magic,” Elle whispered, like a secret, hushed, “Just magic. Not good or evil.”   Jason tried not to think about how much it had hurt. Sometimes the years strung together in one long chain- his ribs breaking, his bones cracking, his lungs seizing, his hands torn, his whole body burning from the inside out. He’d died ugly, more than once, been reborn what seemed like much the same.   “It’s something,” he told her.   Elle nodded. “The oldest magic- most powerful magic, is always simple. Lazarus is a miracle so old it predates the name. A source so potent it works even on nonmagical people.”   A miracle? No. But it had led him to miracles. Let Jason Todd live long enough to be here, arms full of magic.   “That’s why,” she let go of his face to gesture toward her own eyes. “Rituals are exchanges. You give it your death, and it gives you life. You come to it bloody, it makes you whole. You’re alive, and so it lives through you.”   Talia, with the calm she used to deliver all terrible truths, every warning, it will live through you. It will be with you, forever. Harder to regret than usual in this second- the heart of the story, the secret he told no one that never stopped being at least partially true: Jason had always wanted to live. Always wanted his life to matter, the way he’d come back to Gotham and realized it hadn’t, not in the way he thought.

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

fic writer q&a

thank u @geneticcatalyst for tagging me <3<3 (when i opened up tumblr and saw the notification i was floored!! u?? participating in a writing game?? this is really cool im really happy about it! a normal amount of happy for normal mutuals who have def not spend a lot of their free time scream reblogging each other's takes with further additions)

How many wips do you have currently?

i usually work at multiple projects at once, it keeps me fresh, so, like, less than 30 but more than 10. lets not give out numbers to cultivate the illusion that i know what im doing

Which one are you finding the hardest to finish?

this isnt easy to answer because most of my wips give me headaches. im reluctant to say that all of them do, because i am an optimist, but the truth is that :D all of them do. but these kinds of headaches are usually easy to content with. most often its really just myself who stands in my own way; i have a method for that by now. i fridge wips and let them marinate for a bit, and often that is enough to work out the snares. either the enforced distance also established an emotional recontextualization, or future-me, who is 9 out of 10 smarter and more level-headed, immediately sees the issue and immediately knows the solution. god bless her

anyways! that is a longwinded way to say that yes, i have a wip like that. and its chosen in great honours for this title because, other than the other headache-inducing wips, this one's headache doesnt want to vanish even if i ignore it very hard, to my greatest chagrin. for one, i have to research a lot for it and subsequently examine subject matter that is difficult to expose yourself to over a prolonged period of time. my wip is inspired by and works through the socialpolitical events during soviet germany, nazi germany, and china during the time of the cultural revolution and in its present day. (im being vague on purpose.) im not a historian, and my formal education is helpful but lacking. the second reason, the true reason, is that through this wip, im also examining my own family history and recontextualize who i am in relation to it. its deeply personal and very emotional, and very exhausting. it also makes me, like, very angry, all the time. which is also exhausting.

What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you?

that depends! im working on finding a better writing/resting balance for myself because im really bad at respecting when i have reached a healthy limit. i know that many people in the writing community struggle with getting words on the page or making daily writing a habit. i dont have that problem i dont have any problems im amazing, no im joking, of course i have problems, but its more the other way around. see afromentioned disrespect of personal wellbeing during working hours

my relationship to writing is super fraught. so when inspiration strikes me, i will not automatically open up my docs anymore and start drafting or editing, or to write down some notes, because that would mean to delegate the thing im currently doing to another time. i need to have a really, a really, really, good reason to do so now. (this is a recent development thats still in the trial and error phase.)

i dont want writing to have that kind of power over my day-to-day life, yknow. my motto is that if whatever im cooking up in that moment, if its really "meant to be", it can wait. and if not, well. thats not my problem! (it actually is my problem, but im trying to ignore that unfortunate happenstance. writing is, like, literally just a thing i do for fun, i dont have to do it, there are thousand other things i could do instead /threat, and not more. this is what im telling my brain everytime it tries to convince me to make more out of it than it is. takes out a knife.) i also find it super helpful to just, like, sit with the inspiration. to just enjoy that feeling of bursting creativity. it feels really good, like attraction. and i can channel that elsewhere. fortunately, i see myself as an artist (hairflip) rather than a writer, so, to my other innumerable talents belongs a variety of very cool creative hobbies that i literally could do instead. (and they arent nearly as stressful!!!!11!!!11! for me!!!! personally!!!1!!!!! oh look, a second knife, however did that come into my pocket.)

its been doing me a lot of good to just, like, not care too deeply, and only write when im in the right mood. i want the act of sitting down and tending to my wips to be a conscious decision i make in full-knowledge of the consequences, no matter how pressing it feels in that moment to “do” something with that strike of inspiration. cultivating that enjoyment of a story by spending a healthy amount of my writing time dreaming about it, and virtually “doing nothing” makes me happy, and helps me find to where i need to go in the end. that is also an argument i use to barter with my capitalist brain.

Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different?

i used to curate playlists for wips. i still have those! theyre great for when i want to get into a specific mindset. i dont do that anymore though, too much work. most of my wips are fueled by the same music anyway, because most of my music listening to is being done while writing. thats also why i dont listen to music just for fun anymore, my music listening to capacity is fully exhausted (i know! how can i! im currently trying out this new thing called "recreational listening to music while lying facedown on the bed being a blob in the troposphere" its really nice)

Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organized?

balls to the walls!!!!!!!! but id argue that these two things arent necessarily at odds u just have to know how to ride that rodeo (takes out a third knife)(camera pans in and it is revealed: im a knife bouqet shaped like a woman disguised in a trenchcoat)

tagging: @aiyexayen @intertexts @ayjada @fanghuas @gingabish0ujo

[scarlet--wiccan]

I wonder about your thoughts on a certain element of the recent scarlet witch as a loki fan (I’m less familiar with their familial status quo). I realize I’m over thinking this so like, advanced warning

During the truth-off loki refers to Laufy as their “true father” and Wanda uses the same term to describe magneto. Laufy is Loki’s bio dad as far as I’m aware but mags is maintained in-issue as Wanda’s “adoptive dad”. Maybe that was just distinguishing max from Joseph, but even so, it’s a strange line. True doesn’t need to mean bio imo but it reeks of Django erasure. Who of Loki’s fathers is his “favorite”? Who had the most impact on her overall? (Magneto can claim that title for Wanda probably, without him she might never have become an avenger and had kids with vision, hom wouldn’t have happened, etc)

I've been meaning to post about this, actually, so thank you for reminding me.

Throughout Scarlet Witch, Orlando has identified Magneto as Wanda's "adoptive father." This is not literally true-- Magneto never adopted the twins, or had any hand in raising them. In this case, I think Orlando is using this language to work past the awkwardness of the AXIS retcon-- Wanda spent years developing a familial relationship with Magneto based on the belief that he was her birth father, but since that's no longer the case, the best we can do is recontextualize it as a "chosen family" thing.

The thing is, as you pointed out, Wanda had an actual, literal adoptive father, Django Maximoff, so it feels a little clunky to apply that label to Magneto. I think describing their relationship as foster family, or chosen family, would make more sense.

I understand Loki calling Laufey their "true," as in, "birth" father, but you can't apply that same framework to Wanda and Magneto anymore, so it's very strange that Orlando does, even though it's only one line. This feels like an editing error, more than anything else.

Django Maximoff raised Wanda, risked everything to provide for her and her brother, and ultimately, he gave his life to save her from Chthon. That's her true father, and in the previous Scarlet Witch series, Wanda does affirm that she views Django and Marya as her parents, regardless of their actual relationship. I don't care what anyone says-- I love Magneto, I love their relationship, but he's not the dad that stepped up in this story.

Loki has a fraught relationship with all of their parents, but in recent years, the only person they demonstrate any real loyalty to is Freyja. The All-Mother has her failings as a parent, and she screwed Loki over bad in Agent of Asgard, but Jason Aaron put a lot of nuance into their relationship during his time on Thor & WoTR, and I think it shines the strongest.

Interestingly, we've seen flashbacks and references to a genuinely loving relationship between Odin and Loki when they were a child. I'm not super familiar with earlier Thor publication, but that's the impression I get from the current versions of the characters. That relationship has certainly eroded now, but it's still miles above Loki's feelings towards Laufey.

[bengiyo]

What Did You Eat Yesterday? Ep 3 Stray Thoughts

Last week, we watched everyone dunk on Shiro for how he doesn't want to be perceived as older. Kayoko and her family didn't think they should call Shiro "Uncle" but stressed that they wanted him to be part of baby Goro's life. Shiro's boss also wanted Shiro to become a managing partner because Osamu isn't great at managing finances, but was worried that Shiro was fickle for not having married at this point. To cap things off, even Kenji teased Shiro about being called Uncle as they made naan.

I love that Kenji makes them wear the rings when they go to hang out with Kohinata and Wataru.

Oh my lord, Shiro didn't realize this was a costume party, but I love the Easter egg of Kenji wearing the outfit from their dinner date in the movie.

I'm actually losing it over Wataru as a cat/wolf and Kohinata being so into it.

I had pause. I laughed way too hard at Kohinata cooking in the costume with the sunglasses on. He wrote HALLOWEEN BOO on his arm!

I'm glad we got the Wataru backstory. I like knowing the specifics of his hurts around family. Unsurprised that Kohinata has been looking at Wataru for 19 years.

Thank you for focusing on the real mystery about the Gilbert pet name, Shiro.

"Keep it on!" I know they had a good time.

I'm really glad this show continues to face some of the ugly realities about getting older, like preparing for your parents' passing. They even go into helping your parents save face. They admit to saving the money Shiro sends them to buy this tomb, but won't let him pay for it directly. I'm also fascinated by the mom's admission that she's caused problems for the Kakei family and should perhaps be entombed separately.

It's also been interesting checking in with Kenji's bosses and their family situation since we know about the cheating. They stayed together, but the relationship is fraught with problems that Kenji is well aware of. I do like that Kenji trusts his boss enough to admit that Shiro's mom doesn't want him around.

New season new episode with Kenji making a decadent rice and egg dish.

Instantly crushed by the sadness of Kenji's persistent hurt that he can't have a relationship with Shiro's parents.

What's that joke about Joy in EEAAO getting an apology from her mom that wasn't fruit?

I love that Shiro owned his role in the hurt that Kenji has suffered, even if Kenji softened it with his own emotional pragmatism.

I love Kenji. They offer to let Kenji be entombed with them and he immediately recontextualizes all of this drama as that between a mom and her daughter in law. He's so beautiful.

Now who is this child causing problems next week?

Another episode about parents and the wounds we suffer. Wataru's history and ongoing separation tied well with Kenji's feelings about Shiro's family. I appreciate more why Kohinata tries to take such care of Wataru and spoil him because a part of him probably feels guilty even if Wataru was always too gay for his family's taste. I like that Kenji and Shiro's mom are starting to find a bridge.

[indigos-shits-and-giggles]

Shiny from Moana is so Neptune coded actually, ESPECIALLY in timelines where he's ascended to their Lord in Black form, Starry (or, A'stertunus, if you want to be extra formal). And, interestingly, I think this particular song would be very interesting if it's centered around Starry singing to Hannah.

Now, the first verse seems to be mainly Starry singing about "hey look how cool and pretty I am, I'm a fucking immortal cat god and you're just mortal you fucking loser," and of course the "did your granny say listen to your heart / be who you are on the inside / I need three words to tear her argument apart / your granny LIED" is Starry mocking the things Webby might've told Hannah growing up. Y'know, classic "Webby is a stupid bitch" stuff. But, what these lines really are is the start of the Neptune/Starry and Hannah parallels, yippee!

While most of the song goes about as you'd expect, with Starry singing a cool and awesome song while bragging about how cool and awesome hy is, as Hannah just... Tries to survive, where it REALLY gets juicy is the "Far from the ones who abandoned you" bit where in the original song it's Tamatoa making fun of Maui's backstory and how weak that makes him, here that same part is recontextualized as Starry seeing a reflection of himself in Hannah and HATING IT.

Here's a lyric by lyric breakdown of the parallels so it can fully understand how GENIUS they are.

"Far from the ones who abandoned you / chasing the love of these humans who made you feel wanted."

At first glance, these lines are simply Starry mocking Hannah for their fraught relationship with both their parents, with an absent father and a neglectful, abusive mother, and how that drove them to follow Webby. However, if you know anything about Neptune's backstory, this is strikingly similar to THEIR reason for worshipping Pokey, becoming his adopted son, and in timelines where hy's ascended to his Lord in Black form as Starry, EVEN BECAME A GOD AT ALL. Neptune had a similarly fraught relationship with both his parents, where they were borderline neglectful to them, only caring enough to keep hymn fed, watered, and sheltered, leaving him constantly starved for some form of attention, affection, or a scrap of parental approval. And, just like Hannah, this drove Neptune into the waiting arms of an eldritch god, though instead of the benevolent Queen in White, Webby, it was the most uncompromising of her brothers, Pokotho, the Singular Voice himself.

"You tried to be tough / but your armor's just not hard enough."

This line, in this case, gives away Neptune/Starry's underlying feelings towards Hannah. Again, they realize how similar they are, how they were taken in by eldritch paternal figures for similar reasons, and hy HATES it. In his mind, this just means they have to work to prove hy's BETTER than Hannah somehow, that he's stronger, tougher, and they didn't get where hy was just by being Pokey's son. Acknowledging their similarities would mean acknowledging all his deep rooted issues with their parents, hymns need for approval, and shockingly low self worth, and he doesn't want to do that because that would mean (to Starry, at least), acknowledging hy's weak. So, his goading and mocking of Hannah and how they're supposedly weaker than them is, in reality, hymn grasping at straws, trying to find something that sets him apart from Hannah, makes them better and still worthwhile.

It's honestly kind of depressing, if you think of it. What with all their similarities, Neptune and Hannah might have had an opportunity to become friends once upon a time if Neptune just got a bit of therapy, but because of hymns inferiority complex and fear of not being "good enough" for Pokey, for ANYONE, it's these same similarities that drive them further apart.

[teddog]

OCtober 2024 Day 1: Fav OC

Curtis Scanlon, my problematic beloved.

I have a long history with Curtis. He’s existed since 2015, which is uncomfortably long for an OC. He reflects my struggles with how to make a good character: is it more important for a character to strive to be all that’s good in the world or is it more important for them to be complex and fraught? What does it say about me to have an OC who is a bucket of problems and poor life choices? In turn, that reflects my search for identity over the last decade.

I talked about Curtis a bit in OCtober 2022. What I might not have shared then is due Working Through Nonsense, I really didn’t feel comfortable coming back to that character for many years. I wondered if I had to let go of him for my own mental wellbeing— he was wrapped up in a lot of complex emotions about previously creative communities I was part of.

I’ve come to terms with the impact those experiences have had on me, which also lets me recontextualize Curtis a lot. He’s always an stranger in a strange land, pulled between wanting to know what’s morally correct and wanting to pursue his own happiness. The Curtis I see in my head now is more content with making the most of the moment, which is also what I strive to be.

“Teddog, this tells me nothing about this OC!”

Meeeeeeh. Sad man who fights monsters and possibly wants to sleep with those monsters and can see parts of the future and is cranky about it. Here’s a silly quick sketch I did to humour @mer0vech and I.

[about-faces]

TOP 22 TWO-FACE STORIES OF ALL TIME

14.) (Tie) “Two Down” from The Batman Chronicles #16 (1999) and “Just One More Thing...” (2015) from Convergence: The Question #1-2

The first and final (to date) stories of Harvey’s strange, tense, touching, and fraught sorta-friendship with Renee Montoya, best represented in this two mirroring tales by Greg Rucka told sixteen years apart. Theirs is one of DC’s most fascinating and underrated dynamics, recently recounted to powerful effect by Renee herself in John Ridley’s The Other History of the DC Universe, also strongly recommended. Here is how Ridley recontextualized the events of these two issues from Renee’s POV:

[callmearcturus]

Oh yeah totally like the way I heard it was for MI3 and due to the MANY starts and restarts of the production (like, you'd think MI3 was made by Bioware it had so many restarts) that TC and Wagner DID initially have people on contract to return, but after a while it was kind of unfair to string them along when they didn't even have a script, and that lead to the New Team in MI3.

I also beeeeelieve that McQ wanted to bring back Maggie Q and others for short appearances in.... RN? FO? one or the other, but due to the way this fucking batshit auteur duo make movies, it was again a matter of

Iirc McQ said it was like "you don't want to film a bunch of stuff with people you work with and respect only for their parts to be cut much much later, it's just not cool" and that's one reason why he sticks to a core team

Except Sean Harris bc that shit was HILARIOUS, I told this story in the Fallout commentary Punct and I did, but Alec Baldwin returned on the condition that he got to die saving Ethan and the team, we which TC and McQ were like "sure"

Fucking Sean "make sure you kill me off in RN" Harris found out, called McQ, and was like "you MOTHERFUCKER"

I love it. Hilarious. Thinking of how McQ and TC make movies really recontextualizes the fraught concept of autuer theory and gives me agida to think about BUT

It's also v entertaining.

[thornsent]

I really, earnestly want to learn more about Judaism to be honest.

I'm not sure if I could (or should?) convert, in no small part because of the tension I have with God, with religious institutions, and with law

... Not because I want to break laws or something like that, but I've always found it difficult to grapple with the idea of such a loving God punishing his people when it is he who made us this way, you know? But there are things which I read and learn that really do fill me with a sense of peace and reassurance and love, so it's Incredibly frustrating I suppose to love God and yet be so angry with God at the same time. You know?

It really is like... Having a fraught relationship with a parent, sometimes. I love you, you put me here, but I am so angry with you for all that you allowed to pass.

And I'm also nervous about delving further into learning or reading, because I'm worried about appropriation or accidentally being antisemitic and hurting someone, I would never ever want to do that :(

I've been going through an extensive Weird About God arc and it appears to not yet be over, and if it keeps coming to my mind like this I think I should listen and explore it.

I wish that less mainstream, or perhaps more esoteric, views and writings were more easily accessible, because when I talk about God I don't really mean some... Nebulous Guy In The Sky, I think it's bigger than that, some sort of force which permeates all of us, all of the living things around us, all of creation, some sort of force we cannot see but which connects all of us together and which is the root of all existence. I really strongly believe this!! I think they/it/he/whatever pronouns you want to use for God listens, and is present. And I am glad that I have finally pushed past my religious trauma enough to, in a way, recontextualize and forgive God, if that at all makes sense.

I don't feel lost persay, but I do feel like I'm meandering and want some sort of direction. I'd love to attend some kind of service, or meeting, but I am really nervous about doing so because my beliefs are far from mainstream and if anyone asked me anything I might clam up out of nervousness, and I'd hate to embarrass myself like that 😅 But I do so strongly crave that sense of community and oneness! Yet reading and practicing in solitude always feels so much safer-- I know this is both because of my history as a heavily closeted pagan in the buckle of the Bible belt, as well as trepidation with socializing in a religiously oriented setting; I'm nervous of being taken advantage of or manipulated again, like I was as a child. But I'm grown now, and I think I've got an alright head on my shoulders all things considered, I just worry and sometimes find it difficult to truly trust myself and my perspective on these things.

[taylorrama]

The Locked Tomb + mewithoutYou pt. 11/17

Hail the blest atomic morn Unto the earth a bomb is born The pebble bed reactor core Up to the sky ascends.

Song: Magic Lantern Days Album: Pale Horses

So, John Gaius nukes Earth, resets everything, and ascends to godhood. Today's song could be sung in that immediate aftermath, though if it really were a Nine Houses hymn, it probably would've been written a generation or so later. Anyway.

Hail the blest atomic morn Unto the earth a bomb is born The pebble bed reactor core Up to the sky ascends. Hail the blest atomic sea, Its mouth in Oak Ridge, Tennessee Whose lips--untouched with blasphemy-- Our glowing eyes attend

I think the first stanza is pretty on the nose with how well it works for TLT. Part of the theology of this universe is praising the Resurrection and it's easy to imagine that the nuke that killed Earth in this framework would be considered a "blest atomic morn."

The last line of the second stanza is also pretty literal for TLT given Jod's eyes and Lyctor eyes.

Bishops wrapped in Bedford cloth Said pride would cast our victories off, The Deep Blue to our Kasparov Our moral thoughts impart.

Much of the imagery in this song takes these nuclear fallout/nuclear apocalypse trappings (bombs, Bedford cloth of pilots) and christens them in religious concepts. I imagine that similar things were done immediately after the Resurrection. John and the Lyctors–theoretically the only people who remember everything–had to recontextualize this catastrophic event to create a functioning theocracy. Maybe they crafted images like this to achieve that.

The chorus.

Brightest and best Are the children of the morning. Dawn on our darkness And lend us thine aid" {SHH 132}.

This sounds pretty and hopeful on its own, but in the song's context and applied to TLT, that beauty has this chilling undertone to it. We started with an atomic morn to be hailed and now the children, the inheritors, of that morning are the brightest and best. All of the Nine Houses are children of the Resurrection and necromancy seems to be an inheritance that some of them get. Though, I'm not sure than many in the Nine Houses would be praying for or honoring dawn on darkness. Probably the opposite.

Side note: these lines are almost directly pulled from a shape note song. Shape note songs tend to talk a lot about death. Like a lot. If any part of The Locked Tomb universe was extrapolated from American Christianity, shape note would be the perfect weird nichey thing to include.

In unmysterious ways We re-enacted closet plays From charming, Magic Lantern days For the android whales below You'd be cast as the Nazarene In the unrepenting desert scene Near to me, your Mary Magdalene, Our Lady of the Snow,

These lines continue this conceit of flipping common religious ideas on their head in light of apocalypse–unmysterious ways vs. "God works in mysterious ways. We have the person the narrator is addressing as Jesus, the Nazarene, while the narrator casts himself as Mary Magdalene, a figure with polarizing and fraught history in Christianity. But they're performing this silly play together for silly robot whales. All of this is just...the same energy that Tamsyn Muir has with writing TLT at all. She's upturning Christian theology for fun (and profit), playing with all kinds of names and stories in a very distant post-apocalypse universe with memes. Silly! Beautiful!

The chorus again, but with an added part.

Star of the west, the horizon deforming, Too many humans Under the brown fog of winter Come dawn in our darkness. Lend us thine aid

Now, we have this chilling image of the sky deformed because of the encroaching, inevitable bomb. The dawn in the darkness now is associated with the light from the bomb, the light from Jod killing everyone to save them.

The song ends with this sort of postlude.

Guide where our infant redeemer is laid Guide where our infant redeemer is laid Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid

It's clearly referring to Jesus, but in TLT, the infant redeemer is laid in the Ninth House. 👀 Or it could also refer to Nona since she is baby. 😌

---

TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 1; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 2; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 3; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 4; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 5; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 6; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 7; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 8; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 9; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 10; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 12

[thewapolls]

this one's a smaller family tree but covers a surprising amount of ground...

CLAY PUPPET and EARTHEN FIGURE are both actually rather enduring figures in the franchise bestiary individually, but I'm bundling them together here because they're not just recolors they're synonyms. They don't have any apparent source material nor any obtuse meaning, they just both describe a humanoid made of clay or dirt/soil. On the one hand these are fairly generic, with maybe a certain archeological tone to them, but they're also pretty obviously some iteration on the Jewish Golem, whether directly or thru a chain of other influences. Also probably some parallel evocation of things like dogu and haniwa in Japanese archeology.

WENDIGO is a kind of evil spirit cited in the lore of several different Native American groups. It is attributed with the possession of human hosts that it drives to violence and cannibalism (among other typified behaviors) most often in the onset or depths of winter and/or far northern regions where and when food scarcity and starvation would threaten a community. There is a... fraught history, to say the least, of the Wendigo being grossly appropriated in western media that really ramped up since the 1980s, probably peaking with the extremely tacky and insensitive use of it in the 2013 Hannibal TV show.

WIGHT in a really neat kind of obtuse reference with a lot of history. So on the one hand the Wight is also a D&D monster, but as a fairly generic undead warrior, which isn't the reference being made in WA2. In lieu of that you might be tempted to look to J.R.R. Tolkein's use of the full word Barrow-Wight and undoubtedly the root of its pop culture presence. But there too they're just undead warriors. No the root of this reference (and a similar line of thought goes into the Wights of Game of Thrones) is that William Morris's 1869 English transaltion of the Nordic Grettis Saga invented the term "Barrow-Wight" as a translation of Haugbúi --haugr refering to a kind of burial cairn or mound +‎ bui meaning “dweller,” both being old norse. But because William Morris was something of a pioneer and eccentric he opted to try and retain the archaic sound of the old norse, and so instead of translating the term literally into contemporary English, he used "Barrow" a type of burial mound native to britain dating back to pre-christian eras, and "Wight" a term that was already archaic by Morris's time, used in the middle ages, to refer to a person but in a derogatory or vilifying manner, all together to give both the literal meaning and an archaic and ancient tone. So it is once again referring to the undead, and specifically characters who were warrior kings, but also this original use carries with it the connotation of Norsemen, and that is where the affiliation with the ice and cold comes from, hence the white furred yeti-like model in WA2, and the soldiers of the long winter in GoT/SoIaF.

WRAITH is another historical English term referring rather vaguely to ghosts or figures of the dead in the underworld. Dating back to the 1500s in a translation of Virgil's Aeneid.

GASNOID 1ST is a fun one as it kind of cleverly recontextualizes the shared model with WIGHT and WRAITH as gaseous rather than spectral. But it's also an obtuse reference to the Japanese 1960 horror/sci-fi movie, GAS Ningen Dai-ichigo[ガス人間第1号]: "Gas Human #No.1." (the English title is The Human Vapor) Although the name in Wild Arms gives the impression of THE FIRST... in a European style lineage of a ...GASNOID family. The actual Japanese used in the game is in fact, GASNOID1st[ガスノイド1st]. (I wasn't actually thinking about it when I compiled the image, but it's possible that the enemy EM BEING is actually a reference to Denso Ningen[電送人間]: "ElectricalTransmission Human" (aka The Secret of the Telegian) a rival movie that came out in the same year as Human Vapor.)

SHAITAN a super late addition to the franchise, but it shares its model with GASNOID in WA5. It's actually just the Arabic borrowing of the Hebrew Satan[שטן]. And as you'd guess it refers to any of a variety of evil spirits and tempters basically hitting all the marks of its Christian and Hebrew predecessors while also adding in a pretty robust array of unique Islamic lore in the Quran. That's a pretty severe over simplification of things but I'm not about to jump down that rabbit hole because there's just no room here, and stupid William Morris already took up so much...

[c0rpseductor]

i know it sounds silly every time i say it but developing very serious feelings and opinions about ao3 famous anime png emet-selch really has been a decent part of my sort of recontextualizing and coming to further understand certain aspects of Gender More Generally and my own relationship to gender simply bc i have difficulty perceiving him in a way that isn’t “gay as gender identity.” and that really made me reflect on the arbitrariness of Labels Generally but particularly on manhood where like gay men, esp feminine gay men, are effectively exiled from manhood by society and regarded as less male or totally not male. so for someone who understands this but is not trans, like, how do you conceive of yourself as cis either when manhood is intentionally denied to you? like where do you go? at that point.

and really it makes a lot of sense anyway bc like for me being both binary trans and gay is like. genuinely it was hard for me to come to that conclusion bc being a gay man in particular is such a singular experience with gender that nothing really resonated with me that was orientation-agnostic. you know what i mean? like just general trans stuff obviously always struck a chord in me but what actually got me to figure out i’m a guy was realizing that i want to be seen as male by other men in a romantic and sexual context and that having that element missing was also part of why attraction to men always felt fraught for me, along with internalized homophobia. so like im fine just saying im a man but more honestly i think “gay man” is a lot closer to describing my gender identity. and that is something i do resonate a lot with in “cis” gay men who like i said aren’t necessarily trans and wouldn’t describe themselves as such but who also have sort of decoupled with more traditional ideas of gender and are doing the weird shit and whose whole gender situation is most easily summed up by “gay”

and like despite the fact that he’s classic Disney animated film levels of homophobic queercoded that’s one of the things i like so much about emet. “Lestat you’ve projected 90% of this onto him” yes and no. it’s not in the text but it’s true. i simply perceive these matters on a higher plane

[eclipsecrowned]

tiny bg3 au concepts for muses that have clear ideas. 5/??

hel: tief (of maternal goliath descent) grave cleric/bard. potential party member. traveling songstress turns out to be on the run from a nobleman. personal questline involves either hel refusing to stoop to the level of said nobleman who ruined her life and reclaiming the family she lost and potentially counting the pc as part of such... or her losing her family more permanently through player choices/quest outcomes and striking back twice as hard, hardening her character and introducing a villain arc. chronically ill with visible physical deformities, her con stat is a thing of horror. i just think she and ast*rion would be hilarious as buddies given her class vs their overlapping autonomy trauma.

hoid/wit: just a normal human bard. recurring npc. just a silly goofy dude who gets everywhere. royal advisor, court jester, beggar, coachman, he plays every role to perfection, a jack of all trades. roll high enough in perception and you realize he's a big fat liar. knows a little too much about history from an objective perspective than anyone should be comfortable with. may be a legendary figure who killed a god? it's a blur. don't think about it too hard, just let the silly white haired anime man give you an uplifting story that recontextualizes your problems and helps you grow as a person. is working against a vague shadow organization ran by his ex, don't worry about it. he just wants to stop the apocalypse.

evi: wife, mother, drow cleric. npc bc lbr it'd be her eldest son and his squad as recruitable party members. fled the underdark decades ago at great personal risk, bringing with her armor and weapons of great power. was never truly safe until she married a warlord and settled into a... fraught... marriage. has kept her head high and her heart open, however, especially with her two sons in the mix. is key to one potential outcome for the kh*lin fam questline in which you expose that a long history using her as a pretense to go to war was false and she was actually attacked by friendly fire. will heal party no problem and is genuinely a good egg to players, regardless of race, alignment, or class. if one of her sons or their associates are recruited she's trusting you with her baby and them with you so you all get to come back safe🥺

melisande: non-human magic user (exact class tbd) who is traveling with her dragon companion. not much of a fighter, but has a number of neat spells and status effects up her sleeve. first one to cast speak with animals in the wilds. was raised by a master wizard and wants to do him proud. i think rather than the big boy seen in the movie her dragon gorbash is still just a little guy nipping at her heels. a gentle chaotic good type, too beautiful to truly be the human she claims to be. but it's rude to stare and conjecture exactly what her lineage truly is, seeing as how she was happily adopted as a child. i see her as the npc type with gorbash acting as basically a scaly overgrown housecat of precious few braincells.

lena: same general story beats, half-elf bard and rich girl out on her own for the first time. her attempt at a business trip is cut short by current events and she ends up in the party's orbit. will sugar mommy their silly little tasks because i mean. world's fucked. might as well live deliciously with the time we have left, especially if you're one of the intrepid heroes seeking to stop the apocalypse in its tracks.

[vizthedatum]

In this episode of recontextualizing ‘90s Bollywood films, we investigate how “Dil To Pagal Hai” depicts fraught polyamory and just how complicated polycules can actually be. In this essay I will… (Ok if any of you even hint at wanting to read more, I think I can actually write an essay on this - be warned) #diltopgalhai #madhuridixit #karismakapoor #akshaykumar #shahrukhkhan #bollywood #poly #polyamory #itsaboutadancetroupe #cmon https://www.instagram.com/p/CpP_WrTs-rH/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[spectershaped]

Thinking about the "constructed" idea of Family in Umineko

Umineko spoilers, specifically chapter 7

Been lowkey obsessed by how the culprits in the Rokkenjima Massacre (Bern's Version) both invoke very gendered simulacra when distancing themselves from their actions - Rudolf brings up Westerns, specifically likening himself to a "villain", whereas Kyrie recontextualizes her bonds with her (new, non-Sumadera) family as her "playing house" and Ange as an instrument to "chain down" her beloved (which, in turn, she kind of rejects herself once he proves himself to fall short of her standards). Also noteworthy that, at least in the English version, she refers to Ange as a "piece", which automatically creates a parallel between her and the witches of the meta-world

Worth pointing out as well that Kyrie is the only Ushiromiya spouse whose family we know much of anything about; both she and Rudolf are products of families where the norm is isolation, ruthless competition and abuse, so it's easy to see this as them perpetuating the very notions they absorbed growing up. The hermetic, stultifying conception of The Family in Umineko is a tinderbox that produces emotionally fraught, lonely, vicious adults still stuck in childlike simulacra of existence - inside their very own cat-box, they can play the role of all these iterations of quasi-personhood, as long as they do not expose any sort of vulnerability

Kyrie and Rudolf in particular are interesting from that perspective, because they seem to have no middle ground between the glib, barbed performances of family/career life and the intense, capricious intimacy of spousehood in a way that really highlights the fact that their families seem to be wholly devoid of outside friendships (minus the cousins, and even then they've got their own issues). Hell, the sudden presence of family relations is heavily implied to be a big part of the reason for Yasuda's emotional crisis and surrender to fate (Oops All Incest!)

[robindluzenwriting]

Alex Chitty at Patron Gallery in Visual Art Source

Review by Robin Dluzen

Alex Chitty, “Like a Mule Through Honey,” 2022, porcelain bowls, spoons, cast concrete, plastic horse, brass, honey dripper, various woods, cotton furniture webbing, powder coated steel, 40 3/4 x 31 1/2 x 8 1/2”

Continuing through January 28, 2023

“She had her ceramics studio in the laundry room,” Chicago artist Alex Chitty said at her exhibition opening. Chitty explained that this show, titled “Figs break open of themselves,” is connected to a recent foray into her genealogy, and what she’s learned about the various creative practices of the women in her family. While maintaining a studio in the home is not at all uncommon, for female artists it can also be fraught, relegating one’s creative ambitions to the back room in favor of the domestic. But Chitty’s own works are not simply a feminist critique; they are a manifestation of and investigation into the duality of home life and art-making — an ever-looming conundrum that weighs disproportionately on women.

Tables and tabletops comprise Chitty’s exhibition, wall bound or flipped vertically to become a kind of picture plane for her three-dimensional vignettes. The artist’s grandmother’s kitchen table is spliced between the segments of the diptych, “In Other Words.” In “Lush Understory,” another worn wooden tabletop is layered in front of a hanging button-up shirt and beneath a black and white photograph of a woman painting with four arms, all captured at different moments in her brushstroke. In these assemblages, domestic objects, such as glass coasters and fake fruit, are recognizable, but oddly recontextualized, painted, altered or embedded into contiguous surfaces. These, along with details like tiny chess pieces and miniature figurines tucked into crevices or perched on outcroppings, invite the eye to peer more closely, so as to reassess what we might have assumed was taking place on these familiar planes.

There is an unfinished quality to Chitty’s assemblages, with melted cups, chalk marks, a dotted scissor cut line across a cast plaster grapefruit, all coming together at random. A honey dripper from out of the blue, and so many metal and wood rods as the warp to the weft of her furniture webbing in “Like a Mule Through Honey” all feels as though it might have occurred while the maker was in the middle of doing of something else: building, binding, dismantling, collecting. These tables may have been sites for suppers or piles of laundry. But the very fact of their aesthetic deployment suggests that they could have been witness to a different kind of work. Taken together with the various trappings of a certain class of domesticity, the evidence of making imbues these pieces with the potential of works-in-progress, as well as the potency of possibilities unrealized.