#this one is a little weird

[theinternetisaweboflies]

Jägermeister

Chapter Nine: Monsters of Our Own

Since their shared drift, Newt had been averting his mental gaze from Hermann for fear he would return it. 

The mortifying ordeal of the drift. 

Now he lasered his full focus on the Hermann in his head. 

By honing in on Hermann, Newt could almost ignore the cacophonous whispers of hive mind. Almost. It was like humming loudly whenever Hermann got too pedantic. Newt could still hear him, but it was more about the principle of ignoring him than the de facto state of ignorance. 

Newt followed the ghost of Hermann through his own neural pathways, like chasing a very tall rabbit. Harvey, maybe, or Frank. 

Every living creature on Earth dies alone. Kelly, Richard. Donnie Darko. Newmarket Films, 2001

Newt liked Donnie Darko. He wondered if Hermann would too. 

Probably not. 

Hermann liked Frankenstein. 

And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein, Introduction, 1831.

Like the Jaegers. The monsters of our own making. Death to the imposter-syndrome.

Whoever had christened the Jaegers was probably the same chucklefuck that thought it was a good idea to name their base of operations anything with the word ‘shatter’ in it. 

At least Hermann's favorite film adaptation was Young Frankenstein, but that was, like, objectively the best one. 

“Hearts and kidneys are tinker toys! I am talking about the central nervous system!" Brooks, Mel, et al. Young Frankenstein, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1998. 

Hermann liked…

Hermann liked Downton Abbey.

…Yeah, Newt had nothing. 

Hermann liked Hegel, and there was something in dialectical philosophy that was blowing dust on the laser grid of Newt’s mental landscape.

We call dialectic the higher movement of reason in which utterly separate terms pass over into each other spontaneously. Hegel, G. W. F., The Science of Logic, 1812.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy was developed in the late 80s specifically to treat Borderline Personality Disorder.  

BPD wasn't even added to the DSM-III until 1980, and for almost a decade after that, it was considered untreatable. It was a life sentence. Except when it was a death sentence. 

Then Marsha Linehan developed Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and suddenly it wasn’t so untreatable anymore. 

Newt didn't have time for full-fidelity DBT, so his therapy had been a little more autodidactic in nature, but it was ultimately about finding a middle ground in the black and white thinking that resulted from such extreme emotional experiences. Newt was still salty that he couldn't say the phrase ‘shades of gray’ without invoking that unfortunate representation of BDSM culture. When it came to consent, Christian Grey was almost as bad as the cultists. 

Anyway, Hermann's Hegelian née Kantian dialectic was also a rejection of dichotomies, not unlike earlier Derridean deconstruction of Saussure’s significant binaries. Non-binary. They/them. 

Maybe Newt should change his pronouns to, “Yes/And?”

Almost nothing was all or nothing. Labels could make you aware of more options, but eventually you would see there were more options than there were labels. Dichotomies were reductive, especially when applied to human beings, ultimately reducing them to the falsest binary of all: us/them.

Abstract, negative, concrete. 

Thesis, synthesis, antithesis.

Scientist, hive mind… hive mind.

Newt had never felt so skinless. He had to sew himself a new one, like the women at Playtex, who went from making girdles and bras to spacesuits. They beat out three major defense contractors to produce the suits for Apollo 11. 

Hermann loved those ladies, so now Newt did too. He'd never even heard of them before, but Hermann had memorized names, even though so many of them went unidentified, their work considered trivial in history’s biased gaze. 

Eleanor Foraker, Iona Allen, Francine Burris, Henrietta Crawford, Velma Breeding, Hazel Fellows. The astronauts had stars and multimillion dollar inertial navigation systems, but those women had only pins to guide them.

On a less endearing note, Hermann liked Nietzsche, although Newt was starting to suspect that he was just homesick. 

It was still a surprise, coming from Hermann Handwriting-of-God Gottleib, but Newt knew that relationships with god were never so simple. His relationship with someone's gods was now incredibly complex indeed. 

Anyway, Hermann liked Nietzsche because of something, something, Übermensch, because of course Hermann thought his own humanity was something to be overcome.

Maybe Newt just wasn't getting it. He had never been as good at the purely theoretical stuff as Hermann, and he wasn't exactly working at full capacity. 

He was definitely over capacity.

Whatever. Irrelevant. If the Übermensch was some sort of Platonic ideal of humanity, then it could only ever be a false idol. Perfection was a myth. Perfection was a way to ruin something good enough, which was all Newt could ever hope to be.

Playing by the rules was ridiculous, when everyone who wrote them was already dead, and there were plenty of people present, now, in need of rehumanization. Nothing othered, nothing maimed.

Fuck Superman though— Newt’s bone to pick with Nietszche was from Beyond Good and Evil.

Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Jenseits von Gut und Böse, ch. 4, no. 146, 1886. 

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

...

@lastdaysofwar

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[egophiliac]

missed the mark by (looks at calendar) uhhh. hm. but I really wanted to do something for the 5th anniversary! happy five years to these idiots 🎉

[evercelle]

it was all so simple then

[noodles-and-tea]

I might colour this later

[badninken]

chaos, cabbage and comics

[wigglesdtuff]

Robiiiiin, whatcha readin'?

[confuzing]

Luo Binghe is waiting at the base of the mountain for the entry exam to start when he meets and befriends a rich noble boy who's also planning to enter.

His new friend A-Yuan insists that Binghe eat with him and stay with him at the inn and the boy's servants just kind of nod and go "of course young master."

And like, Luo Binghe might be biased, but A-Yuan is like... Really Pretty? He didn't know boys could be that pretty...

They even walk up the mountain together and settle in to dig their holes side by side.

Meanwhile Shen Qingqiu is pretending to pointedly ignore the other Peak Lords at the selection while instead eavesdropping so hard because apparently Liu Qingge's youngest brother is an applicant this year, but the brute isn't planning on picking him because "A-Yuan doesn't like fighting" he says, strangely fond. Shen Qingqiu was not aware Liu Qingge was capable of being fond of anything.

When Liu Qingge singles out Luo Binghe Shen Qingqiu jumps on it- and then the boy sitting nearly shoulder to shoulder with the urchin looks up and my, isn't the family resemblance remarkable? The boy even has a beauty mark, though his is on his chin.

"That one too," he tells Ming Fan. He can feel Liu Qingge's eyes boring into his back as he approaches the two boys. He still gets the urge to dump his tea on Luo Binghe, but before he can Liu Yuan hugs the other boy and tells him "my mama is dead too." And that mollifies him. The boys are sent away dry.

Liu Qingge is furious and suspicious of course- that was the whole point. And Shen Qingqiu decides he'll just let the boy sink or swim on his own. No doubt the brute will be butting in to make sure his precious baby brother isn't mistreated.

Liu Yuan swims of course- that boy loves learning- and drags Binghe along in his protective wake. And maybe after his thirty-something stop in to check on A-Yuan Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu start like, maybe respecting each other a little bit more. They definitely don't like each other. No. Never.

Edit: More here

[wardingshout]

ALTTP december warm ups and doodling (and one from today, happy new year)

[the-heron]

Girls will say "this is my beautiful wife" and their beautiful wife is just a weird looking man

[hinamie]

in my portrait era it wld seem

choso and/or yuki request for anon <3

[ikiprian]

Ghost Kitchen (brought to you by criminal entrepreneur, Red Hood)

Danny’s got the easiest job in Gotham.

He works as a fry cook at a shoddily-run, independent burger joint. Hardly anyone comes in, despite prices being criminally low, and portions insanely large, and while the manager looks like the average tough-as-nails ex-con, he lets Danny mess around in the kitchen whenever the place is empty. (Which is often. This place has to be the city’s hidden gem or something!)

Mr. Manager’s the only one ever there with Danny, except for sometimes when his buddies come over to smoke and play cards. Danny would find it shady, except part of his job is not to ask questions. Literally, he was told during the interview.

(It was a weird interview. Why would they need to hire someone who’s been in a gunfight before? Like, he has, but Gotham’s idea of “hirable qualities” is so bizarre.)

So instead he whips up some killer burgers with the frozen ingredients, and basks in the praise as the guys tell him he shouldn’t have, he does too much for this joint, ain’t that friendly!

Now, Danny’s a chef on the newer side. As a teen he’d preferred the look of Nasty Burger over anything with Michelin stars, and he only really took up cooking after Jazz moved out for college. But just like ecto-exposure used to turn the groceries sentient, Danny’s low-level ecto signature imbues all his food with something historically haunted Gothamites just love! And Danny’s never been one to half-ass a job when it makes people happy.

With fresher produce, real meat, Danny’s sure he can take his dishes to the next level. It takes a couple months of badgering, but his manager finally agrees to contact the mysterious store owner, who keeps the place going, despite profits Danny knows have to be in the red.

Danny spends the morning prepping. He pours his heart into his food, eager to impress. The big boss will be here soon, and he wants to prove that despite the dangerous location, this place has real potential!

It isn’t until the Red Hood shows up that Danny realizes he’s been working for a money laundering scheme.

[hollis-art]

the medical malpractice show but as women because i said so

[asha-mage]

MDZS AU where Jiang Cheng realizes that Lan Sizhui is the Wen orphan that Wei Wuxian took care off during the Burial Mounds arc, decides that's close enough to qualify him as Nephew, declares that no Nephew of His (much less a surrogate son of Wei Wuxian's) is going to be raised in the Cloud Recedes, and immediately launches into a custody battle with Lan Wangji.

But since neither Jiang Cheng or Lan Wangji can acknowledge that Sizuhi has any connection to Wei Wuxian, both begin steadfastly and stubbornly insisting that he is a Cultivator of peerless potential and skill and he belongs in their sect thank you very much, and would clearly be very unhappy in the other's. This confuses the hell out of the already mystified Cultivation world, who had barely adjusted yet to gossiping about Sizhui being Wangji's illegitimate child by mysterious love affair.

(Eventually the common consensus in the rumor mills is that both JC and LW where in love with Sizhui's mother and both believe themselves to be Sizhui's real father.)

(LW couldn't care less what gossips say, but JC has to bite his tongue till it bleeds to avoid telling anyone the truth in a fit of anger.)

(It was Nie Huaisang who put that rumor out in the first place, partly to troll JC, partly because, in a way, it's a little true.)

[humans-are-tasty]

[soupdweller]

mermay day 8: scales