The funniest thing in the world to me is when people write mermaids that are bothered by humans eating fish. Like do you think fish don’t eat each other? The ocean is full of little freaks that will eat whatever or whoever the fuck will fit in their mouths. If the mermaids haven’t been eating fish this whole time what do you think they’ve been eating? If the answer is humans, that doesn’t make it any less funny. They’ll eat the species that looks like the top half of them but won’t eat a species that looks like the bottom half? Peak comedy.

What uh. What's the frog story 👀

back when i was in second grade, my elementary school organised a school market with every class selling their crafts for charity. the contribution of my class were hand-sized ceramic frogs we made in art class. each one of us made one of them to be sold for five euros a piece (this is important later). the quality of the frog i made varies drastically based on who is telling the story, and for reasons that will become very apparent later there is no way to check, but i stand by the fact that it was average looking, if a bit wonky.

the day of the market arrived, and all frogs were bought within minutes, snatched up by enthusiastic and proud parents. all except - mine. because my mother hates spending money on unnecessary things, and she hates children's crafts even more. so she - loudly and vehemently - refused, in her thick eastern european accent, to "spend five euros on an ugly frog".

i will never forget seeing my ceramic frog alone on the slightly wet cardboard, surrounded by the imprints left behind by the already sold frogs. all the while other parents are getting more and more agitated, trying to get my mother to put the frog out of its misery. eventually, she budged, and spend five euros on a wonky frog. she was absolutely furious about this.

so furious, in fact, that when we came home to where my father was remodelling the kitchen, she WALLED IT IN. that's right. she cask of amadillo'd that poor ceramic fool. put him into the open wall and slapped concrete over it faster than my poor seven year old self or my dad could protest. out of pure anger over loosing five euros. and that's where it remains, until this day.

my mom hates when this story is brought up, which is why we bring it up all the time. she also thinks she what she did was right, because "do the other parents know where the frog is? no. only your creation is safe. because i love you." morally, i would disagree, but on a pure factual basis, she has a point.

i made her another ceramic frog for her last brithday, which was not buried like some pharaoh, and everytime guests compliment it my brother loudly goes "oh you should see the other frog he made" and when they ask to see it, he points at the wall. this is hilarious to him and infuriating for my mother. and that's the frog story.

This place is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it!

while teen while goblin while aroace while injured while doing your best

carlos's radio message of “ gap to lando every lap" and carlos intentionally slowing down just enough to keep lando within drs range , lando understanding the signal. when told by his race engineer about the gap (0.8) carlos goes like “ it's on purpose ”. do you understand how much coordination, trust and intimacy you have to have with THAT driver to have that amount of telepathy with? like. nobody apart from CarLando could pull that off. i repeat, nobody else.

coming straight from my three page long notes app essay I wrote at 4am after seeing the barbie movie, some thoughts on why barbie is definitely aroace, and why that means the world to me tbh:

BARBIE IS AROACE. TELL ME IM WRONG.

barbie not wanting to be with ken is so important. she never has to explain herself. she’s just not interested. and that’s okay. she’s never shamed or ostracized because she’s not interested in ken. it's not played for jokes. there’s never even a moment of “well, maybe barbie will have a realization that ken's been there all along and they'll end up together”. nope, there’s never any expectation. and it’s not even in a girlboss feminism, “she doesn’t need a man” kind of way. she just doesn’t want that, and the movie respects that. the movie respects what she wants, which is something we don't see much when it comes to aroace rep (or like most rep when it comes to women tbh).

barbie also turns down ken in a way that makes it clear that she's just not interested. there's no hesitation or sugar coating to it. we see this in the "girls night" scene in front of the dreamhouse, when barbie says simply, she doesn't want ken there. even later on when she turns him down in ways that are a little nicer, she's still very firm in her decision. time and time again we see barbie knowing what she wants and asserting it. we live in a world where when turning down men women always feel the need to be nice about it and "let them down easy" either out of being polite or sometimes as a safety precaution. regardless, to see barbie be able to be firm in her decisions is so empowering.

I love how this subverts expectations, bc we know ken is (supposed to be) barbie’s boyfriend. she’s everything and he’s just ken (although we can get into the nuances of that statement some other time). that is the role ken has always played. so to have that subverted, to make it clear to begin with that barbie is not really all that into ken is such a nice change.

this is also SO important because barbie is a beacon of “stereotypical” femininity, and has also been historically sexualized. so the fact that the movie lets her be feminine and girly but she can still not be interested in ken is amazing. she is still allowed to be herself, and her femininity is neither tied to, nor does it detract from her want to not be with ken. the movie said girls can be feminine without being tied to male attention !! girls can be feminine just bc its fun !!

I can talk about this for hours it’s so genuinely healing for me. I doubt many others picked up on it, hell idk that this all was intentional, but I loved it <3

The Magnus Protocol 5 - Personal Screening

I really truly, from the bottom of my heart, hate you bitches so much, because on the tiktok of literally COCK AND BALL jokes w brittany broski, there were a few notes/messages like this:

And I KNOW you don't think anyone's going to check. You had someone go into your askbox and say "hiii brittany broski is shitty about palestine she's really ignorant :/" and you went oh omg I didn't know!! thanks for telling me! So I checked! This is in reference to her talking in her podcast, because people were asking why she hadn't done any big press statements about Palestine, you didn't retweet this or that, you must not care, don't you care, what's your stance, etc etc please say more OKAY COOL. So what's going on there? What did Brittany say on her podcast? Is she a Bad Person? Can I have some transcript, please? ____ "Hey guys, before we get into this week's episode, I want to talk to you about the ongoing and prolonged suffering and loss of life in Gaza, in Israel, and the oppression of Palestinian people widespread. I don't ever want it to be a question that I would ever not be against the oppression of any group of people, that I would ever stand on the side of the oppressor." "There was a lot of fear of misusing my platform." ... "I will admit that I was nervous to talk about it, because I don't want to say the wrong thing. And this is too fucking serious of an issue to misspeak, or to spread misinformation, or to speak over or for someone." ... "So I want to take a moment on my biggest platform- which is this podcast, to say that I stand with the people of Palestine, I stand for the liberation of Palestinian people." ... "Every day, to log on to social media, and be just inundated with graphic, unimaginable violence, and loss, and grief, it's just--There are no words." ... "And I feel helpless. That's part of it too, when you feel helpless, the last thing you want to do is talk to people about it-- but visibility is a resource in and of itself. And I can offer that." ... "The outpouring of rage and passion online, and anger at what's happening, I would argue needs to be dedicated and focused on our elected officials. We live in a democracy- albeit an inherently flawed one- we live in a democracy where we have elected officials who were elected and put in power to represent us, and if we feel misrepresented, if we feel underrepresented in foreign affairs? These officials have public phone numbers and emails. There are scripts available online to express your disdain and your rage, and unfortunately that's one of the only ways we'll see actionable change."   "If you expected more from me, it's a terrible feeling- but I don't want to center myself, this needs to be all eyes on Palestine right now, where the real activism is happening. I would encourage you to follow journalists that are on the ground, people who are in Gaza, we need to be listening to them. I would also hope that we're at a point in this conversation where I can express my desire to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and that NOT meaning or suggesting or condoning anti-Semitism of any kind. There's a rise of anti-Semitism and islamophobia in the United States and it's just-- it's disgusting, and it's scary, so I want that to be said too. I just wanted to share that I am experiencing part of this collective sense of helplessness and hopelessness-- but it DOESN'T HAVE to be hopeless. I'm going to include a phone number in the description of this episode where, if you don't know the name of your senators or your Congressman, it's never too late to learn, and you can reach out to them." _______ Hm. What a bitch!! Yeah, just so ignorant and uncaring. Obviously she's not keeping up with anything. Should've retweeted more shit ig!

If your banker breaks, you snap; if your apothecary by mistake sends you poison in your pills, you die. True, you may say that, by exceeding caution, you may possibly escape these and the multitudinous other evil chances of life. But handle Queequeg’s monkey-rope heedfully as I would, sometimes he jerked it so, that I came very near sliding overboard. Nor could I possibly forget that, do what I would, I only had the management of one end of it.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville (chapter 73, The Monkey-Rope)

Max's version /

I haven’t seen anyone talk about this yet (though I’m sure someone has) but I’m obsessing over the ‘viability as subject’, ‘viability as agent’, and ‘viability as catalyst’ categories

To me it sounds like the magnus institute is specifically researching avatars and their rituals

Viability as Subject = Use as a Test Subject

Viability as Agent = Likeliness to be an Avatar

Viability as Catalyst = Potential to Start a Ritual

For the dice roller, viability as a subject is none because he died. His likeliness to become an avatar is LOW because he was in the early stages of becoming an avatar, so he’s unlikely to wake up as a full avatar after death. And the viability as a catalyst is medium possibly because of the power of the dice. A further example could be Jon, if Elias had been assessing him with this list I could see all the items being marked ‘high’

This goes really well with my original theory that the reason Chester and Norris are reading these specific statements is because they either are 1) TOLD by an avatar or someone becoming an avatar, or 2) involve an already existing avatar (or in this universe, an Agent)

Furthermore, the protocol sounds like the institutes reaction to anything that gets a high rating on their three check marks. It’s their job to shut down any potential rituals or avatars. In TMA, maybe the team stopping The Unknowing could be considered the same as the ‘magnus protocol’ in this universe.

If any of this speculation is correct, it brings up some VERY INTERESTING questions about when the magnus institute figured all this out, who figured it out and if the children they were experimenting on were potential avatars they were assessing or potential soldiers they were testing

The Screaming Man // 2022

          … The pose of this particular sculpture was decided based on the prompt of impact; I wanted the posture and expression to perhaps startle the viewer, to convey the sense of someone screaming for help and reaching out a hand in desperation. I wanted to make it visceral, for audiences to feel uneasy when they see it and get a rush of emotion that will remain with them even after they walk away.            Ideally, this sculpture would be shown in an area that is wooded, where one may not see it at first. It is that jolt of recognition of the human form that would catch the attention of any accidental audience members, that realization that somebody has been silently screaming for help right in the corner of your eye and you hadn't even noticed. That it could have easily gone unnoticed and unheard, but now your attention is impossible to deny, that it is too late to plead ignorance without remembering what you saw, what cry for help you had no choice but to walk away from.           There is a meaning in that shame. It means something to me, and I know it means something to you as well. Something about guilt and helplessness and learned apathy, but I wish to let audiences decide what specific meaning it has to them. The type of impact is unique on the person, after all - at the end of the day, the screaming man is simply a man made out of sticks. Nothing more, nothing less. Not unless more is given, if one chooses to take the hand reaching out.

What if the organizing of the cases in the O.I.A.R being different from how they were organized in TMA with the original 14 entities is causing a remanifestation where the separations between the new entities are completely different. What if by organizing the cases and they are single-handedly driving this universes interpretations of the fears. They aren't categorizing existing things, they are creating the boundaries.

its so weird to me that people saw deltarune be a portal fantasy and think that he's going to conclude the story in the typical portal fantasy way, when this is toby radiation fox we're talking about, his whole thing is genre subversion

to be fair, i think a lot of undertale's subversive elements have been somewhat lost on players as well — not in a derisive way, but rather because of the fact that undertale itself has grown into an odd niche in the cultural zeitgeist. the game's almost ten years old now — a lot of people who played it during their childhood are going to be in their twenties soon (if they aren't already)! for many players, undertale was one of their first rpgs ever — and so a lot of the subversive elements likely went over their heads, given they hadn't much to compare it to. nowadays, players compare games to undertale instead — the amount of people i've watched hesitate in an rpg game to wonder "is this going to be like undertale?" is not an insubstantial one. undertale has become the archetypical rpg to many, which causes somewhat of its subversive punch to be lost on its audience in the process.

i think this is a part of why deltarune has also had its subversive elements overlooked. deltarune goes to great pains to draw attention to many of the same older rpgs — both in the broad strokes (such as playing with the idea of a battle between light and dark) and in the small and specific references (seam is clearly inspired by the look and affect of zelda's happy mask salesman, for example.) but many may be relying on archetypical examples of portal fantasy to guide their way because they didn't pick up on the subversive elements of fox's writing style at all. in many portal fantasy stories, the conceit is that the protagonist must overcome the fantasy in some way and go home — the protagonist must grow to fit in with our society. the fantasy is often merely a means or an obstacle to that end. but deltarune takes great pains to invest us in these fantastical worlds and the people that live there beyond the archetypical — lancer, spades king, queen, spamton, ralsei, and everyone else are not merely written and framed as such. they struggle under the role of being objects. they have feelings about the way that they must live and react to that in ways that are realistic and not always easy to grapple with. when their worlds fade away, the game takes the time to linger on it and frames the dismissal of fantasy worlds as "lesser" as suitably disquieting. at every turn, deltarune draws attention to the things we would normally take for granted in a portal fantasy story and asks us to take a closer look.

it's pretty funny that catholicism gets the brunt of the blame for like trauma and craziness in religion because in all honesty it's like. pretty chill. I'm generalizing here but no more than anyone else who talks about religion. like the craziness people associate with christianity is generally not coming from catholics lol. not saying there aren't bad people in the church but on the whole catholics are mostly just vibing

ougghhh everyone’s talking so fondly about lionpaw and his new friendships made by the ripwater event but all i can think about is his mention of ashfur’s comment. and how lion probably thinks it’s just a little joke but ash might actually mean it :(

There's this little pearl of a theme hidden in the Ripwater Episode, if you look carefully; abuse acts on people in insidious but subtle ways.

It's Mistystar who's defensive of asking for help or admitting a problem, thinking of what she did to Leopardstar and also repeating cultural sentiment that once victimized her herself.

It's Squirrelflight shouting at her daughter for acting like she used to, because she's spent some years being yelled at in a similar way

It's Hollypaw who isn't allowed to enjoy her achievement of saving Otterpaw's life or lean into how much she has in common with Lakepaw, because she's ashamed of how she did something "wrong" by snooping

And lastly, it's Lionpaw, who's starting to believe the vicious comments that Ashfur says about him. I referenced Willowpelt partially for the sweet little irony of him teaching her recipe to her unknown grandson, Ripplepaw, but ALSO because Ashfur is starting to isolate him.

Willowpelt is the Head of Hunting, currently, a position that Lionblaze is going to succeed her in. I don't think Ashfur is playing 4D chess quite yet, but there's a couple of little motivations knocking around in Ashfur's heart for why he's nasty whenever Lionpaw interacts with her;

Ashfur hates Willowpelt, because of the events from Ferncloud's Parting. He isn't aggressive to her directly, but he does spread rumors and slander whenever possible, happy to remind others of her exile.

Lionpaw getting close to Willowpelt will annoy him. Ashfur both hates and resents his apprentice, but also feels POSSESSIVE of him. He feels like Willowpelt will "steal" what's his.

A simple but hard truth; Ashfur wants Lionpaw to hurt. Maybe Ashfur sees it in his head like "telling the hard truth" or "toughening his apprentice up," but when he makes those malicious little comments, makes him recoil with hurt, it feels righteous.

Maybe in the next draft, it should actually be Ashfur, not Blackclaw, who comes to growl at Lionpaw for bonding with Lakepaw over the spears. Maybe have Willowpelt come in to show them how to properly use one and that's actually what set Ash off. Like he just used xenophobia because it was convenient in that moment.

being a kh mobile fan is so funny because all the kh content i see is going off about motifs and parallels and the development within both the light/dark and interpersonal connection themes and dissecting how it affects the other events within the story… and then i go to the kh main tag and its ‘Top ten reasons sora and riku should make out on kairis grave (and this will make kairi a better character)’