#things are percolating in there

[stellarspecter]

EDDIE MUNSON

Marina & the Diamonds - Oh No!

I'm now becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy Oh, oh no, oh no, oh no!

[averlym]

misc. watt quotes that live in my mind rent free + bonus spread

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

if Crozier had a nickel for every time someone close to him kept a mortal wound secret from him he'd have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's definitely enough to give him some very specific trauma for the rest of his life

[library-windows]

Stuck home today on account of my agonies and decided to throw in my two cents on the Pentiment soundtrack album cover art with its many references, 'cause like . . . why the hell not

These are my own interpretations, take them with a grain of salt.

There are SPOILERS for Pentiment through Act III behind the cut.

☞ Andreas

Andreas is holding gentian (blue) and edelweiss (white), both Alpine flowers. One of the symbolic meanings for gentian is "justice"; and one meaning for edelweiss is "dedication" (another is "sacrifice").

In his other hand, Andreas is holding a blank scrap of parchment -- symbolizing the player's ability to make choices and help define the story.

☞ On the table

The bound codex is pretty self-explanatory with the game's motif of books, both manuscripts/codices and printed books.

The snail on the book is possibly emblematic of the much slower, more labor-intensive process of making manuscripts over printing, but I suspect it's actually a joke about the number of giant snails that pop up in medieval marginalia. (Inkulinati also invokes the giant snails and Andreas.)

The broken hammer symbolizes the murder of Otto, the town carpenter.

The ornate clock ties into the clock that's been built in Act III, replacing the liturgical hours as a measure of time with a 24-hour clock; and on a larger scale, symbolizing the shift from late medieval to early modern. The beetle appears to be standing on a miniature sundial and climbing from it onto the clock, reinforcing the emphasis on a shift in how time is measured and conceived.

The beetle itself looks like a direct reference to Albrecht Dürer's "Stag Beetle". Rather than treating the insect as a memento mori based on the association of insects with decay and death, Dürer painted a study of a beetle with careful attention to its appearance, as an observation of the actual critter rather than making the beetle into a symbol of anything. As far as the Pentiment art goes, this inclusion along with the clock shows some of the shift in mindset from medieval to early modern/renaissance vis-à-vis its relationship to nature, as well as Andreas' (possible) interest in the natural world. -> Dürer was also from Nuremberg, and he sure has a certain physical resemblance to Andreas (check his "Self-Portrait at 26" in the wiki link); he also gets name-dropped early in the game, if you have the Craftsman background and ask the baron who the artist was that he saw painting the emperor's portrait.

There's a pen, a stylus, and a pen knife on the table, along with the spilled red ink that recalls blood.

The gold coins could have multiple symbolic meanings -- they could indicate that Andreas is a professional/master artist and, by this point in the story, a man of wealth (especially given their position between some of the tools of his trade). They could also symbolize the competing financial demands of Kiersau Abbey (since again, these were the tools of its major source of income) and the people of Tassing. Either way they represent a link between art and money.

☞ The wall/window

Beatrice, St. Grobian, Socrates, and Prester John can be seen in the carving behind Andreas' shoulder.

The notes sent to the murder suspects in Act I and II are hanging from the curtains. Ferenc's is the top one that is partially burned; Ottilia's and Lucky's are also visible, along with the one that Andreas receives at the end of Act I warning him not to return and, I think, the one that Claus receives in Act III. (The exception is the note that Matilda received, which is under the clock on the table; assuming she's not accused of the murder, Matilda is the only one of the Act I suspects who's still living in Tassing in Act III when the Rathaus clock is built.) The notes are tied together with a red cord/thread that also leads to a key; this references the mastermind behind the murders, the Thread-Puller.

Moths represent transformation, and the three stages of their life (larva, pupa, adult) could line up with the three acts of the game and Andreas therein (youth, withdrawn and depressed, and ultimately breaking out of that chrysalis to be free); but I think another form of moth symbolism that lines up with Andreas himself is the proverbial "moth to a flame", where a moth will find itself compelled to fly toward a light (or a fire) even when that means destroying itself. [Addendum] The moth has two pairs of eyespots, and is placed with the notes/key/thread; it could also represent Father Thomas, an unassuming and seemingly harmless person, who is nevertheless positioned to observe the secrets of both Tassing and Kiersau.

The winged bull, a symbol of St. Luke (patron of artists, as you can learn from the in-game glossary) is confirmed by the artist to be an actual pentiment -- it's painted over a tauroctony, a motif in the Roman cult of Mithras that shows Mithras killing a bull. Obviously this ties directly into the events of the final act of the game where Andreas and Magdalene discover the Mithraeum and how the Roman ruins were reinterpreted as Christian relics. If you were to 'erase' the pentiment to reveal the original drawing, it would show Mithras (central figure of an Imperial Roman cult) killing the bull that had been remade into an image of the Christian figure St. Luke -- mirroring Father Thomas' fear that revealing the historical truth would "kill" the faith of Tassing. -> It's possibly worth pointing out here that Mithras, as worshipped by the Romans, was himself syncretized from an ancient Iranian god; to quote Wikipedia, "The Romans attributed their Mithraic mysteries to Zoroastrian Persian sources relating to Mithra. Since the early 1970s, the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities between the Persian and Roman traditions, making it, at most, the result of Roman perceptions of Zoroastrian ideas." [bolding mine] So there's that.

Roses had already had a long association with love and beauty in both medieval and renaissance art, and in particular they often symbolized divine love when paired with devotional images.

The arched windows recall the shape of the aqueduct and the other Roman ruins in Tassing.

Mausfänger (or possibly Son of Mausfänger) is sitting on the windowsill.

The dead bird symbolizes the murdered Baron Rothvogel, whose name literally means "red bird"; outside of it being a repeated phrase in the notes themselves, Andreas can mention this euphemism if you find Ferenc's note and ask him about it. The bird itself is a robin, and at least via Shakespeare, the robin was sometimes associated with constantly singing to woo females.

Part of the Totentanz / Dance of Death from the abbey chapterhouse is reproduced on the lower wall panel behind Andreas.

The lute and pipe represent Alkemie, who did the music for Pentiment (this is the soundtrack album art, after all).

☞ The background

The waterfall in the mountains recalls the mystical spring that's venerated in Tassing's various histories as the point of its founding/salvation.

Kiersau Abbey is visible in the background.

A labyrinth is also visible through through the window, between Andreas and the abbey. This represents Andreas' own mental labyrinth, with the crowned symbol for mercury at the center. Mercury represented the mind in medieval alchemy. It also could represent the local church of Tassing (distinct from the abbey), Our Lady of the Labyrinth, which venerates an icon of the Virgin Mary holding a labyrinth that in turn is derived from the Mithraic labyrinth symbols in the Roman ruins. The church lies physically between Tassing and Kiersau, as the labyrinth here sits between Andreas in the foreground and Kiersau in the background. -> While the story Father Thomas tells Magdalene about the church's labyrinth is made up for the game, labyrinths do exist in Christian tradition as a form of meditation, where a person follows a single path to the center while meditating or praying (either physically along an actual path or by following the path in an image); though Pentiment is also referencing the labyrinthine abbey library in The Name of the Rose, which is similarly at the center of multiple murders committed in order to hide forbidden knowledge.

In medieval art, the owl was most often a symbol of misfortune, as it appeared only at night; that it seemed to prefer darkness over light also made it a symbol of non-believers. The tree the owl is perched in is a gigantic oak, which is likely the same tree where the shrine to St. Satia is; if you talk to Marie and Bert in the forest in Act I, Marie can tell Andreas more about the shrine's oak tree and how it's venerated. [Addendum] Subjectively, the owl's physical shape also recalls the shape of Sister Amalie's habit, with its rounded head and bulky body; Amalie also emerges only at night to 'hunt', i.e. to deliver messages. She is also metaphorically 'in darkness' through Father Thomas' manipulation.

The skull in the moon is a memento mori; the sky outside is between night and dawn, which would more or less match the time at which Rothvogel, Otto, and Claus were all attacked. Also: moon's haunted

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

The "Dutiful daughter, all my plans were laid, tendrils tucked into a woven braid," (x) to "Whether I'm gonna be your wife or gonna smash up your bike, I haven't decided yet," (x) to "I died on the altar waiting for the proof," (x) juxtaposition in the wedding imagery in the TTPD-era visuals still lives rent-free in my mind by the way.

The way the softness and vulnerability and youthfulness of the album photo shoot contrasts with the ornate gowns and styling of the Grammys and music video looks are so interesting and say so much. I know we talked a bit about the key art before the album came out but it really does tell such a story in itself and I'm floored at how they in themselves tell the story of the album.

[innytoes]

The call came in just as he was sticking more photos to his board. He was so close to cracking this case, he just needed a little more evidence. Maybe find a source willing to talk to him. Either willingly or unwittingly, at this point he didn’t even care. He wouldn’t reveal his sources anyway, and if he could just figure out where to find something damning…

“Boldheart,” he said into the phone, attention still mostly on the board. Maybe it needed some string. Or at the very least some of those flames Nimona had drawn and cut out for him to add.

“Mister Boldheart, this is Principal Conroy from Gloreth Elementary School.”

Oh no.

He didn’t quite manage to keep in his sigh.

“What happened this time?” he asked. He refused to say ‘what did she do now’, if only because Nimona usually had a reason for whatever chaos she wrought. Like trying to free the pet gerbil from ‘his stinky, tiny prison’ or punching a kid who made fun of her because ‘you couldn’t even get two normal foster parents, you ended up with two foster dads’.

Of course the school hadn’t done anything about the other kid. He was a legacy at the private school, and he’d ‘just been stating facts, after all’.

“It appears Nimona bit another child.”

Well, that was new.

“What did the other kid do?” he asked, knowing he wouldn’t get a straight answer until he talked to Nimona.

“Mister Boldheart, this school has a zero tolerance policy,” the principal started, and he pulled the phone away from his ear, mouthing along the words mockingly has he got his keys.

Part-way through her little rant, he cut her off. “I’m on my way,” he said, hanging up the phone before she could answer.

Nimona was sitting in what Ballister was coming to think of as ‘her’ chair. The one furthest away from the principal’s door. Her face was like thunder, arms crossed in front of her defensively. But it eased a little when she saw who was picking her up.

As much as he and Ambrosius tried the old Good Cop, Bad Cop routine, Nimona had very quickly learned they were both complete pushovers. And that while Ballister could be stern when it mattered, he wasn’t about to punish her for no reason. He’d always hear her out, and he’d always explain why a rule was a rule and why it shouldn’t be broken. (Or when it could be, under certain circumstances.)

Also, he was fifty per cent more likely than Ambrosius to take her out for ice-cream when she got suspended for no reason, again.

“What happened?” he asked, crouching down in front of them.

“Chad wouldn’t stop trying to poke me,” Nimona said. “I told him to keep his hands to himself or I’d bite him. It’s not my fault he didn’t believe me.”

“I never touched her!” Chad shouted from the other side of the hall. His hand was bandaged rather dramatically all the way down to his elbow. “I even said ‘I’m not touching you!’”

Ah. Ballister knew that game all too well from his own time at Gloreth Elementary. Being the scholarship kid had made him an easy target.  

“Come on,” he said, putting his hand on Nimona’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“Don’t you need to talk to the Principal first?” they asked.

He did, but he really didn’t want to. Instead, he looked at the ancient secretary, who’d always had a bit of a soft spot for him when he went to this school. “How long is she suspended?”

“Just the rest of the week,” the secretary answered. It was Wednesday, so not too bad. “The Principal wants to have a serious talk with you, though.”

Ballister knew exactly what talk she wanted to have. It was the same one she’d had when they enrolled Nimona, suggesting that Gloreth Elementary had a rather rigorous curriculum, and perhaps ‘someone like Nimona’ would be better suited for a ‘less demanding environment’.

Another thing he remembered all too well from his own time at this private school.

Never mind that Nimona’s grades were at the top ten per cent of her class. Well, when she remembered to hand in her homework. And it was legible between the drawings of sharks and dragons and who knew what else. But still, it wasn’t the curriculum that was bothering her.

“I’ll send Ambrosius by tomorrow morning, after his shift,” Ballister said. Because suddenly, when The Golden Boy Legacy Kid himself stopped by it was much harder to say no, or that their kid didn’t belong here.

They walked out of the school, Nimona’s fuzzy pink book bag hanging from his good shoulder, her hand clutching the wrist of his prosthetic arm. They were already too far down the hall to hear the Principal call them back, and Ballister knew she was too dignified to run after them.

“Look, I get it,” he said once they were outside, because he really, really did. “But you can’t go around biting people.”

“Why not? He deserved it,” Nimona said, sulkily kicking at a pebble.

“Because you don’t know where his hand’s been, it’s gross.” Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best argument for not biting people, but it was one that was probably most effective for this particular kid. He and Ambrosius could sit her down and explain why biting people was morally wrong some other time.

Nimona was silent for a moment, before sticking out their tongue and running her own hands over it. “Blergh, you’re right!”

See? Effective parenting.

“How do you feel about milkshakes and a stake out?” he asked.

“A stake out?” The hunched shoulders and frown disappeared, replaced by a bounce and a bright, sharp smile. “Who’re we taking down?”

“Nobody just yet,” he said. “But I could use a sidekick following one of VerdAgra’s employees.”

“Yes, boss!” Nimona cheered, all but throwing herself into the passenger’s seat. “Can I have a chocolate-peanut butter-caramel milkshake?”

“Sure thing,” he said, even though that sounded like a lot. Nimona beamed and rummaged in the dashboard console to find their Stake Out Sunglasses, handing him his own. Because you couldn’t do a stake out without them, of course.

Tonight, he’d have a talk with Ambrosius about how maybe Gloreth Elementary and Gloreth Prep weren’t the best place for Nimona. Not because she couldn’t handle the curriculum, but because the school had no interest in stopping the bullying of anyone they deemed lesser. He didn’t want her to suffer the way he had. Sure, he’d gotten into a great university at the end, but had it really been worth it?

Maybe homeschooling was an option. Or another school. Anywhere that didn’t try to crush his kid’s amazing spirit, natural curiosity, and sense of self.

“Can I tase him if he tries to run?”

“No!”

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Thinking many thoughts about Buck on a motorbike - especially as the only other time we’ve seen him on one he was being stunt rider Buck in Buck begins and it led to his escape from PA!

Something something about motorbikes representing risk taking but the beginning of new journeys for Buck

[altschmerzes]

i was About to get embarrassed that ive posted a couple of history rhymes clips recently that are just. jamie being Very Cuddled by people who care about him and then i remembered 1. that is a thing people like i think, and also 2. given the everything else happening in that fic, this is a proportionate amount of intensely caring affection

[wistfulwatcher]

do you mind telling me a bit of your writing process?

DAY 1: Have a piece of dialogue shoot through my brain like an arrow while in the shower. Let the scene play out as I rush to finish so I can get to a computer and write it down. Lose half of the conversation as I trip my way down the stairs and over dogs, and commit everything else I can remember while my hair dries stupidly in my head towel and I shiver because I'm wet and nearly naked and sitting in front of a fan I can't spare 2 seconds to turn off. Force myself to stop and go to work. DAY 1, 2 HOURS LATER: Have another half dozen bean bags of dialogue and prose pummel me as I try to be a productive member of society. Jot them down sloppily in my phone notes app. Go back to fill in between the snippets with a rough summary of what needs to occur between points A and B in brackets. Realize I just blew my entire lunch break hunched over my phone. My stomach is growling, I've missed 5 calls.

DAY 1, 8 HOURS LATER: Done with work, open up Google Docs and load my notes app snippets into it. Arrange the snippets into chronological order. Now too tired to actually write, go to sleep.

DAY 2: Get up early. Take the dogs out. Get coffee in my Be The Cat Grant of Whatever You Do special writing mug. Sit down in comfy chair with lots of sunlight. Open new Google Doc and write from the beginning of the fic, mostly ignoring the snippets and cleaning it up from my memory. Get nearly an hour in before work. Plan to continue the streak after that night. DAY 2, THAT NIGHT: Too exhausted. Do not continue streak. Plan to get up early again and lean into early morning energy to write. DAY 3: Oversleep. Dogs demand a loooong morning walk. Special writing mug needs to be washed before I can get my coffee. When finally ready, have 20 minutes before work. Do not get computer opened, no writing occurs.

DAY 4: Do not attempt to write.

DAY 5: Do not attempt to write.

DAY 6: Do not attempt to write. Accept fate that fic will never see the light of day.

DAY 7: Hear a song lyric that reignites The Idea while working. Feel dialogue start to bubble up like boiling water. Spend half of the work day jotting down rough paragraphs into notes app. Do nothing with them later that night.

DAY 8: Wake up energized. Write for an hour and a half, picking up from day 2's progress. Mostly work from memory of snippets to rewrite it clean/better, but occasionally reference the doc.

DAY 9: Do not attempt to write.

DAY 10: Do not attempt to write for the first half of the day. Feel guilty midday. Reread snippets from notes app and think, wow, this sure has potential. Do not do anything about it.

DAY 11: Think about writing. Decide to finally respond to messages building up before writing. Should take a normal person 10 minutes, takes me 4 hours. Open Google Doc at 9pm. Think harder about writing. Do not write. Daydream, wistfully, of how nice it would be to live in a future where the fic is written. Still do not write. Go to sleep feeling like a failure.

DAY 12: Do not write in the morning, but feel guilt-free about it. In the shower, get pummeled with the next piece of The Conversation of the fic. Rush through shower to get to computer and record as much as possible, yet again.

DAY 13: Dogs let out, check. Special writing mug, check. Sunny morning and nice breeze, check. Get 30 minutes of writing in.

DAY 13, LATER: Realize one massive issue with the concept of the fic. Lose five years off of life. Decide the fic is dead. For real, this time.

DAY 14: Writing? Never heard of her. Do dishes. Halfway through load, figure out how to fix the issue. Rush to finish utensils, dry hands, make it to phone to jot down The Fix.

DAY 14, LATER: Open Google Doc. Write for an entire hour. Fic is alive once again!

DAY 15: Do not attempt to write.

DAY 16: Do not attempt to write.

Repeat days 1-16 until fic is 70% complete, at which point hole up in bedroom and ignore everyone and everything until it's done. Proofread it until 3am. Know it's a terrible idea to post exhausted. Do it anyway.

[otrtbs]

womp womp

it's not about the paintings! it's not about the paintings!

[shih-coulda-had-it]

BNHA X Claremont Era!X-Men AU thoughts—

A-plot is Gran Torino and Wolverine & Nana and Storm tackling both Shingen’s Hand (call the clone ninja army a proto-Twice Quirk) and maybe AfO because god knows I’d love for Storm and Nana to rock his shit to pieces. Logan is still fighting for Mariko’s hand. I don’t really see a world where Torino and Nana can figure out why Mariko flipped on Logan (it WAS due to Mastermind, right??? Am I crazy???) but the X-Men can at least help neutralize AfO. As for Yukio… 🤷🏻‍♀️ she SHOULD be in here… we’re keeping punk Ororo canon, and maybe Nana will also have a fun motorcycle leathers era…

B-plot is the kids. Honestly, they’re probably the reason why the X-Men come into contact with AfO. I’m tempted to place this at Toshinori’s first year at U.A. so he can be Kitty’s fellow 14 y/o… and of course Toshinori isn’t even thinking about dating but Kitty IS goggling at this age-appropriate but nearly as tall and almost as handsome boy, AND PETER (Piotr? Is there a fan preference??) has been chivalrously holding off Kitty but now he’s feeling weirdly threatened. To make this a real love triangle, Toshinori’s making cow eyes at Peter. Kurt is designated babysitter (Peter: I AM NINETEEN) to his eternal despair.

[tj-crochets]

Reminder for myself for later: pigeon-themed quilt

[good-wine-and-cheese]

They should stop making movies and TV for like 3 years im fully serious

[sexisbetteronthemoon]

minuscule update: 4 fics 100% drafted. nice.

this a screenshot of my pinned post btw. info and links are there.

[ranticore]

the thing about the wyrms is that usually they just don't move. they stay underground because it's where the crawling beasts are but also because they are just not the type of creature that can easily go anywhere. one that gets dragged aboveground will probably die of sunstroke and dehydration before anything else. they cannot use magic anymore. one travelling overland by choice has never happened before, ever, let alone a multi-year march supported entirely by an army of followers. To many people seeing this, they instinctively think it a sign of the end times, something deeply and intrinsically wrong with the world, something impossible. Of course this only works because Revelation can cast spells but eventually it doesn't need to, for any but it's closest inner circle, because despite the fear people hold for it, they are still drawn along, they know the world might end and they want to be on the right side. Or they just want to witness what they believe to be the dawn of a new age

[magnass]

so uhhh where does a person rewatch berena these days?