#which is scarier

[bbbbbbbbatman]

Headcanon that Bruce doesn’t give the shovel talk to his kids’ partners because 1) everybody in the caped community knows what Batman’s capable of and how protective he is of his children so shovel talks feel redundant and unnecessary, and 2) the constant prolonged fear of a shovel talk that never comes is almost more effective than an actual shovel talk

[ace-disgrace-on-the-case]

The thing I found funniest about Needles is (compared to the Distortion) he seems a little bad at his job. He didn’t hunt his victim, they just tried to mug him, and when he did get them he didn’t get enough fear out of them before they bled out. He called emergency services to get some more spook out of someone and completely failed at it for like 15 minutes. He rambled about his life story for most of it. I love this pointy idiot

[maxescheibechlinichacheli]

[shamera]

Darkness monsters vs. real world monsters

There's a fundamental difference between Daydream Inc. and the Supernatural Disaster Managemant Bureau that's been niggling at my brain for a while now, and I think it finally clicked for me.

Obviously there's the overt differences: Daydream is a for-profit company where employees are all working for a selfish goal-oriented purpose, while the Bureau is a government sponsored agency whose agents risk life and limb on a daily basis trying to save other people.

It's almost too easy to understand why the Bureau would think of Daydream as a 'cult-like company', one capitalizing on suffering and death of innocent people caught up in ghost stories. And the reverse is also true-- Daydream seeing the Bureau as the ultimate annoyances, trying to destroy the ghost stories that create not only profit but advance strides in-- everything! Daydream has potions that can regenerate half a body! With the dream essence they harvest from ghost stories, they can full on cultivate reality-bending wishes.

Of course, with that kind of power, there are heavy dangers and consequences... I could write a whole TED Talk on that. That part's easy to see.

But with characters of the latest arc meeting (no spoilers), I was thinking about what negates this black and white pattern we've seen between the two sides. Common enemies and all that...

Bureau agents think that the ghost stories are 'Disasters'. They're the worst thing that can happen to a person, and it's the job of an agents to RESCUE people from those disasters, from the monsters and the horrors, to allow civilians to go back to a normal life.

Daydream employees think of ghost stories as 'Darkness', and they're here to explore those Darknesses to harvest from experiences with monsters and curses and the like. Sure, a lot of them die in the process. They're certainly not here to help other people because they understand that it's dangerous enough trying to save themselves. Yet... Daydream field officers persist. In fact, they're practically unafraid of the Darkness.

Because to each and every one of them, the real horrors are out in the real world. The Bureau thinks that monsters exist only in the ghost stories, but everyone who signed up to work at Daydream risking life and limb daily is working toward a purpose-- a wish potion. Something that can change their lives.

People only need to change their lives when there's something terrible they're struggling with, and like Kim Soleum, they are willing to face the Darkness for a chance to change something in their real world.

...In the heart of it all, there really is a commonality there. The Bureau agents want to rescue people from monsters within Disasters, but Daydream employees have monsters that live outside of Darknesses that they're trying to escape.

[befuddled-calico-whump]

Riot Kings, pages 211 and 212

first // prev // next

[not-from-mars]

I’m gonna say it. The Well did not need to be a Midnight sequel.

Of course, there are similarities to Midnight: people turn on each other in the face of an entity that is semi-unknowable. But actually, that’s… about all this entity has in common with the one we saw in Midnight. The thing in The Well doesn’t imitate, it doesn’t learn, it doesn’t possess. But it does straight up murder people.

I hold a firm conviction that the Midnight entity should not kill. A big part of what’s so brilliant and so scary about Midnight is the fact that people are so terrified and distrusting that they’re ready to throw each other out the airlock out of pure fear, not even knowing if the entity actually means them harm. The humans were the monsters of Midnight, at least as much as the entity itself.

There’s a tragedy to the fact that they were willing to kill to stop this thing that hadn’t even materially hurt them, that maybe there was never any danger at all except that which they created themselves. But, though The Well shares those elements of fear and distrust, the entity we see there is undeniably a clear and present danger to life. It’s a slightly different type of horror, and one that doesn’t quite fit with this being the same entity we saw in Midnight.

[anghraine]

jenndoesnotcare replied to this post:

Every time LDS kids come to my neighborhood I am so so nice to them. I hope they remember the blue haired lady who was kind, when people try to convince them the outside world is bad and scary. (Also they are always so young! I want to feed them cookies and give them Diana Wynne Jones books or something)

Thank you! Honestly, this sort of kindness can go a really long way, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.

LDS children and missionaries (and the majority of the latter are barely of age) are often the people who interact the most with non-Mormons on a daily basis, and thus are kind of the "face" of the Church to non-Mormons a lot of the time. As a result, they're frequently the ones who actually experience the brunt of antagonism towards the Church, which only reinforces the distrust they've already been taught to feel towards the rest of the world.

It's not that the Church doesn't deserve this antagonism, but a lot of people seem to take this enormous pride in showing up Mormon teenagers who have spent most of their lives under intense social pressure, instruction, expectation, and close observation from both their peers and from older authorities in the Church (it largely operates on seniority, so young unmarried people in particular tend to have very little power within its hierarchies). Being "owned" for clout by non-Mormons doesn't prove anything to most of them except that their leaders and parents are right and they can't trust people outside the Church.

The fact that the Church usually does provide a tightly-knit community, a distinct and familiar culture, and a well-developed infrastructure for supporting its members' needs as long as they do [xyz] means that there can be very concrete benefits to staying in the Church, staying closeted, whatever. So if, additionally, a Mormon kid has every reason to think that nobody outside the Church is going to extend compassion or kindness towards them, that the rest of the world really is as hostile and dangerous as they've been told, the stakes for leaving are all the higher, despite the costs of staying.

So people from "outside" who disrupt this narrative of a hostile, threatening world that cannot conceivably understand their experiences or perspectives can be really important. It's important for them to know that there are communities and reliable support systems outside the Church, that leaving the Church does not have to mean being a pariah in every context, that there are concrete resources outside the Church, that compassion and decency in ordinary day-to-day life is not the province of any particular religion or sect and can be found anywhere. This kind of information can be really important evidence for people to have when they are deciding how much they're willing to risk losing.

So yeah, all of this is to say that you're doing a good thing that may well provide a lifeline for very vulnerable people, even if you don't personally see results at the time.

[pomefioredove]

see I actually WAS stalked for 2+ years by this guy who had developed some kind of strange psychosexual obsession with me, and thought he owned me (sexually) (we'd never had sex by the way) (we had never even dated). not exaggerating. he told me this in those exact words? it was very scary to have people I barely knew reaching out to me to tell me that he'd been asking around for my contact info again. this is the guy whose convinced I'm his soulmate and we're going to get married and have 8 children btw. he also continuously tried to manipulate me into wanting him except I could tell and thought it was really funny bc I can't take anything seriously

with that context in mind I hope you understand why I would think Rook is just cute and silly. I would be enamored by him. I would be sending HIM flowers and poems. my boo boo keys

anyways this story is funny to me so you can laugh

[kondietorei]

you and eye are nothing alike (right?)

[hiwaaranit]

"It’s a fae trap! Look out it’s a fae trap"

Fae trap? In my America? That’s just the wind

As a Native American lemme elaborate it’s-LITERALLY THE WIND get out of there it’s gonna get you

Don’t look at it, touch it, throw a rock at, god forbid you shoot an arrow at it you’ll be carried off to who knows where and then you’ll have to walk all the way back. It so inconvenient.

[harmonysanreads]

That... was quite the prologue

[velvetwyrme]

If i may ask do you too think Jazz is just a little guy despite all the things he does?

Sorry for bothering and bad gramar

i mean i think of all my blorbos are just little guys despite all the things they do shfjdhdk (<- also a tfo sentinel enjoyer. a bw tarantulas enjoyer. IDW PROWL ENJOYER*)

and as for jazz... that really depends on which characterisation you mean! (and i dont mean continuity- i mean canon vs fanon dhfkdhdk) because that really changes what things he does/has done

but generally yeah hes just a little guyyyy!

[zandotherthings]

We love an ADHD riddled bisexual who convinced himself that he’s cursed and his two boyfriends who don’t believe in curses but need him to stop getting himself into situations

[vilelittlecritter]

"Machine... I will cut you down, break you apart, splay the gore of your profane form across the STARS! I will grind you down until the very SPARKS CRY FOR MERCY! My hands shall RELISH ENDING YOU... HERE! AND! NOW!"

My stupid ass: