#you think you're commited to the bit

[rae-arachne]

the funniest thing ever was when Hera Wolf 359 said:

either: 1.) she doesn't actually have a sarcasm setting and made that up as a joke while the engine was exploding and they were falling into the star or 2.) she DOES have a sarcasm setting which she made sure to adjust BEFORE STOPPING THEM FROM FALLING INTO THE STAR!

i just love her so much

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji Goes To Lotus Pier AU: Part 3: Enveloping Feelings.

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 4)

[mamawasatesttube]

i will preface this with that im aware that it doesn't actually matter gdjgfkh but im still so bewildered by how many different ways people come up with to mix up kon's two names instead of just using them as two names, even though they DO use two separate names for clark. like people are out here going kon el kent, or kon kent, or most egregiously konner kent but i have never once seen kal kent, kal el kent, or... kalark kent? what's up with all that.

[cipheramnesia]

The "movie about a movie that kills you" is a surprisingly robust genre of horror. There's a wide range of approaches, but one key factor is the question of how good the deadly film in a film is, on its own. Some approaches are keeping the faux film entirely unseen, use brief clips, or make it real short.

Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made goes in for a high risk approach and delivers a complete finished film, ostensibly made in the 70s and never released, framed by brief opening and closing info bites to set the stage of it.

Somehow this thing was completely off my radar, which means I was taken fully off guard as an ominous warning about the content in white text on black appeared on screen, giving a thirty second count down to leave if I wanted.

Wonderful showmanship and canny filmmaking that got me right in the mood to enjoy what followed. While I wouldn't call it a scary movie, I found it almost delightful in the atmospheric dread and devotion to its aesthetic of low budget 70s films. Nothing in it feels like a curse on its own, but it does feel like the sort of movie that could easily prompt psychological distress for anyone under psychotropic influences, pre-existing emotional vulnerability, or prone to delusional states. Not through anything supernatural, more because it works hard to keep the viewer in constant doubt over what is and is not real for the characters in the film. Combined with the framing device of it being a movie somehow able to influence the real world of the viewer, and the use of fractionally visible flashes of occult symbols on the screen, it generates an intense feeling of unreality which for me was an almost drug-like high and an immersive pleasure.

The premise of Antrum is simply a brother and sister decide to dig a hole to hell, and the movie plays out around this event by surrounding it with disturbing sounds and imagery, as well as real world dangers that weave the protagonists between the supernatural and mundane while keeping them in a state of terror and madness that grows until it becomes unrelenting.

In a certain sense it also feels cursed, like the kind of film where there are elements that feel very transgressive - in particular the opening scene which to my mind evoked Un Chien Andalou - not the infamous eyeball slicing scene, but the use of rotting animals. The few and very basic visual effects remind me as well of the early Survival Research Laboratory devices engineered by Mark Pauline.

However, the core question for me is also always what is the movie about besides the plot. If I had to identify some rough themes, I would say it's trying to explore the idea of understanding death and violence through the eyes of children who do not yet have the psychological tools for processing such matters, but who have been left on their own to do so regardless.

Many of the unusual elements in the movie can relate to death rituals poorly understood, starting from the very premise of digging a hole into the earth. And the same act is surrounded by strange rituals unclear in their origin, ideas which might be logical drawn from watching words recited over a grave without having a connection of purpose. Their encounters with other people are fully without possibility of communication as none of them speak the same language, and these mundane threats feel at times akin to a satanic Alice in Wonderland, rituals and violence whose meaning cannot be understood by the protagonists.

Likewise the supernatural is full of unprocessed images of death. Demons with black skin who look like mummified corpses. River crossings and empty chains dragging through leaves. It's as if death itself has manifested through the ambient world, surrounding the two children and refusing to let them leave its circle.

In combination with the intriguing use of sigils inscribed throughout, it creates a movie that is for me a joy to watch. An absolutely perfect Halloween spook for next year, but your mileage may vary between finding it full of pretentious nonsense or maybe the scariest film you'll ever watch. It can really come off either way, and I'm honestly not quite sure why my reaction was actual joy in the watching. Not to undercut the severity of the subject matter, but I just can't stop thinking about how happy I was to watch the movie at work mechanically, to enjoy the well oiled pieces fitting together, and then all topped off with the delicious extra treat of the framing device. Surely worth 90 minutes of your life.

[stillfruit]

edward elric, protector of dogs (x)

[chaos-bringer-13]

My brain just hit an old hyperfixation (is this what it's called? I hope I used the word right) and oh dear am I losing my mind now. I need to write a story I think. About this one old guy. He's unhinged. There's so much information about him and yet not enough. I want to explore his character so much. He's definitely a criminal - at least he was one - and I'm 95% sure he can do actual real magic, and he's a musician and an artist and an actor and a magician and a philosopher and a traveler and a conman and so much more and also I think he's some kind of immortal. Maybe he just has a VERY long life. It's strongly implied he was a pirate at some point of his life. He started a cult by accident several times. My conspiracy theories about him include him being a secret god.

He's also a freaking round blue raven. Someone save me from my mind.

[reticent-fate]

[sophiethewitch1]

undersharer!reader x desperately needs to know literally everything about you!tim now fight

[sforzesco]

marcus licinius crassus & his sons

hey do you guys ever think about how crassus' father and brothers died, leaving him the surviving son, and then the tragedy repeats with marcus jr (with his father and brother dying at carrhae)

anyway, tfw you tell your brother not to do reckless shit when you're not around, and he immediately goes off and does All Of That the second he arrives in gaul. what do you MEAN there was a hostage crisis. what the fuck.

The Sons of Crassus, Ronald Syme

Publius Crassus - ‘optimus adulescens’ and his unfortunate career, Ireneusz Łuć

Pompeius Trogus, in the epitome of Justin, 42.4.6

society6 | ko-fi | twitter (pillowfort, cohost) | deviantart

[a-gay-bloodmage]

Day 22: Camp 

(Blackwall x Mallory Trevelyan)

Sticking to his plan to keep dressing like a woman after being caught in the Conclave in his feminine attire sounded like a great idea at the time. Now, stuck out in a camp in the middle of the woods, Mallory Trevelyan is realizing just how tough it’s going to be.

[bonefall]

Can you tell us a bit more about your Sharpclaw? Why is he so concerned with loyalty when he likely was on his own before and this whole “being loyal to a clan” thing is probably as new to him as any cat else?

Long ago, Spiderstar realized that her Clan would not be able to survive if they stayed together.

No matter how many times they killed the rats, they would come back. For every warrior lost, it seemed like the hordes gained another. Her cats were admitting taking food from twolegs, always ready to run from the gorge at a moment's notice, looking at her with guilty eyes. She began to wonder if she was wrong for admonishing them, the way a leader is expected to.

The story goes that one day, she observed a web of spiders hatching from their eggs. The mother watched as her children created small plumes, and floated away on the breeze. It hit Spiderstar, in that moment, that this was how they would survive. Connected by a great web, but scattered to the sky, where they could not be found.

BB!SkyClan never fully disbanded. Like a web, they would share news, come to help one another and inform of safe twoleg houses, trade kittens to each other to raise as apprentices.

From Spiderstar, to her successor, and down to Skywatcher, there was always a "keeper" of this information. When Firestar and Brokenstar arrived, Skywatcher simply spread the news on the breeze. His connections told their connections, and soon, a dozen cats had answered the call.

And, of course, Sharpclaw was one of them.

He may be a rogue, lived most of his life on his own, but in his head that just means he knows more about what it's like to not have a Clan. He's happy to work with ex-Kittypets who choose the Clan above their humans... but even them, how can they ever truly understand what it's like to have nowhere else to go?

He's been waiting for this moment his whole life, from the time he was a young kit being told the stories of Old, from the second he was first introduced to old Skywatcher as a child. "And here," He argues, "Are kittypets who see our way of life as a game. The time of SkyClan's Scattering is over, we are upon the days of a new dawn, and these outsiders are clinging to the past. We don't need twolegs, or the kittypets that can't choose between US or THEM. Leafstar, loyalty is the value that this Clan is built on-- we have to be strong without the help of these Daylight Warriors."

"Lol," Leafstar says, "Lmao even"

I'm bit a bit hyperbolic, but that's how Sharpclaw FEELS about her responses. She's not LISTENING to him (because his ideas suck) or TAKING HIM SERIOUSLY (she is, she's just telling him no and he doesn't like that). She has him as her deputy exactly because she is seeking opposing viewpoints, but this doesn't matter to him in his perceived entitlement.

And this is the resentment that Darktail eventually targets, realizing that his pride and ego is the perfect wedge to drive between him and Leafstar.

Leafstar wasn't picked by SkyClan, someone else picked her for you.

She doesn't want to listen to you, you're so correct and she doesn't appreciate you.

She's letting weakness into your Clan, and if you wait too long it'll be too late

PROVE it to her by taking YOUR supporters and attacking her at night. Show her how good of an ally her kittypets are when they can't defend their Clan, safe in their human nests.

Take leadership from her, you will lead your Clan to the new dawn you've always envisioned.

[variousqueerthings]

three just karate aikido-dropped three security guards and honestly id like to see some other doctors get into a fist fight occasionally, i wonder how they'd do

[scarecrowdrugs]

Finally watched Repo! after having listened to the sountrack for an entire decade and like.....I really wouldn't call it a good movie but I think it would've altered my entire brain chemistry if I had watched it in high school

[grimark]

i like bad special effects. meaning not just old and outdated (which in a lot of cases were actually groundbreaking for their time, but i digress) but also low-budget or rushed or just kinda corny and poorly executed. i think it adds charm where a lot of more polished productions are lacking.

[katierosefun]

step 1 of watching suits: haha fun plot! look at this little guy pretending to be a law school graduate. yeah this won't have any consequences whatsoever

step 2 of watching suits: oh this little guy and that bigshot lawyer have some good chemistry. yeah they're both committing a crime by having him work at this new york big law firm but it's fun :)

step 3 of watching suits: they're actually facing consequences to their actions now, but oh god i don't want to see either of them lose. yes, they did something terrible but don't we all want to feel a bit special. don't we all feel stuck. doesn't our own ambition swallow us whole. don't we feel insanely loyal to the person who gave us everything. we're going down together. if you go, i go.

[thedemonastrophel]

Y do you tag posts with #rambles and #Astro speaks? Why do you need two? Why are you hogging the tags?

Because it sounds like autism speaks and I think I'm funny