#basically!

[robotbodies]

thhinking.

#basically! #nona’s dream is anastasia putting alecto to sleep in the tomb. anastasia had the tomb filled with saltwater to comfort alecto #and keep her calm and resting. the tombkeeper line tradition of saltwater confessional comes from anastasia because of this #whether anastasia started this tradition intentionally or it’s a telephone situation i don’t know. #but what the fuck #tlt #the locked tomb #alecto the ninth

[9w1ft]

Wait so you're telling me Karlie Kloss wore a "cheap ass rose" bracelet to the Eras Tour confirming herself that Maroon is about her, 6 days after Taylor confirmed with was about her by singing it ON Karlie's birthday? Is that real life?

#basically! #and the fact that she’d have worn a fun bracelet of it? would suggest that things are alright! but some ppl aren’t ready for that convo 🤭 #i wonder how many people were newly exposed to kaylor this week because of it #and it’s pretty genius because people can feel the safety net of maroon being a complicated song and all that jazz #like people can scratch the surface and tap out

[bookshelfdreams]

Hi, if there is (going to be) an essay on lighthouse/kraken to mermaid evolution will you share it with us?

Wish you a wonderful evening!

& @roseinmyhand

awww don't enable me (jk I love to be enabled)

I know people like to interpret the Kraken/Lighthouse metaphor as a dichotomy between Ed and Stede - dark vs light, depth vs surface, the coast vs the open sea, the unknown vs the guide, and so on. We like it when characters contrast, and so, compliment and complete each other.

But I think the Kraken and the Lighthouse are codifications of the similarities Ed and Stede share. Emotionally, both struggle with the same thing: loneliness, denial of personhood, the feeling of not being understood and truly seen.

Lighthouses are heavily associated with isolation. The job of a lighthousekeeper is a lonely one; he is supposed to keep his post no matter what, to set aside his own needs and comforts to provide a service to the people who might - not even are, might! - be out there, looking for his light. There is a reason lighthouses are haunted places, associated with madness. Isolation will literally cause lasting psychological damage, and the one who locks himself in this tower to make sure the coasts are safe to sail risks his life, his health, his sanity in service to others.

This is what Stede sees himself as: Someone who is trapped by duty to perform a role that slowly kills him. And even though both the priest who introduces this metaphor into his life and Mary talk about them being lighthouses for each other, Stede says he alone was supposed to be one for my family. Even in this huge estate, with all the comfort money can buy and surrounded by his beautiful family, he feels cast out and disconnected. What he wants, his own happiness, is unimportant, only that he fill the role society has cast him in, no matter how painful he finds it.

And then there's Ed. Ed who, at first glance, seems to have everything anyone could want, too. His name alone strikes fear into the heart of anyone who hears it, he is successful beyond the wildest imagination. He has respect and reputation; by all metrics he truly made it. But he, too, is unable to really connect to anyone. He has no peers on his own ship and the one person who should be his confidant and right-hand man rejects him when he wants to share his thoughts and interests. Nobody really seems to care about Ed. People care about Blackbeard, care about him being a good pirate, and he is good at it! He doesn't feel crushed and suffocated in his life as Stede does in his. But we should not forget that this is not a life Ed chose for himself. He was pushed into it at a very young age, by a horrible act he felt he had no choice but commit.

Away from the cosmos of his own ship and crew, people do not even really see him as human. He is a fucking viking vampire clown, a bloodthirsty killer, spawn of the devil, his eyes are coal and his head is smoke. The whole time he knew Stede, he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, was waiting for him to see what he really is (a monster, that's what people like Stede always end up thinking), and then when he seems to do just that? When Stede rejects him, after he has layed himself bare, after he just started to believe that here might be one who really gets him, like no one has before?

Ed just sees proven true everything he has always believed about himself. He isn't a person who can have fine things, sweet and gentle things, the world will never let him have them. It wants to dehumanize him? Fine, let them do that, he will become the thing under your bed, the creature that drags innocent sailors into the depths. He will never win acceptance, let alone love, but he can force people to fear him and by whatever god is listening, that's what he will do. He will retreat into the dark abyss, alone, because a legendary monster needs no company, and feels no heartache.

One might see how both these ways of conceptualizing the self through metaphor might be a little bit maladaptive.

So. Mermaids.

A lot of people (especially children and teenagers) who are marginalized and/or feel disconnected from their peers will develop a fondness for certain mythological creatures at some point in their lives. Witches, faeries, vampires, mermaids. Creatures that are almost human, but not quite. A thing that moves like you and speaks like you but isn't you - a thing that's strange and alien.

A creature walking among the humans undiscovered.

Mermaids especially have stories of that sort associated with them. A beautiful person with an ethereal singing voice, that will eat you if you dare get too close. A pretty maiden at the dance, the hem of her dress perpetually wet: If you go home with her, she will drag you to the bottom of the river. Someone who sheds their scales like a mantle, whose touch will always be cold, who may have a tail and fish skin only once a month, a year, a decade, and who will leave you if you ever dare to see the true form of them.

Creatures that make ships crack up on the rocks.

And yet. That are social and never alone, are they? Beautiful and mysterious, feared, but it's a fear tinged with admiration, with envy. With their own societies, their homes that can't be reached by air-breathing folk. Mermaids are creatures both of the depths and the surface, who live as they please. Who are ungovernable.

This, I think would make for a beautiful resolution to both Ed's and Stede's character development. Reject the expectations that hurt you, embrace the weird and strange (the queer things) about yourself, but recognize there are people who will be your allies if you let them. Society thinks you are a monster (and I think it's significant that they both get called monstrous), let them think it. It doesn't mean they are right when they call you worthless. You will find your own gang of monsters to be weird and terrifying together.

#basically! #you can integrate your feelings of monstrosity into your personality without it being toxic to your community ya feel #you can eat your enemies and still have friends #& i just think blackbonnet should be unhinged and a horror to witness. together <3 #thoughts #cakeeatingwingedcat #message #stede bonnet #edward teach #our flag means death

[goodieghosty]

Could my health like, stop deteriorating? For a lil bit?? No?

#goodie talks #health stuff #basically! #the meds are doing their thing #no back pain anymore #but I'm waking up nauseous af until i take it #and noooow i'm leaking :) #pus :) from my bellybutton #and i am not chancing it just being an unrelated infection

[amporella]

I hate that breed of Cartman lover. Some Cartman lovers are actually pretty cool, I know a whole bunch of them, but the ones that are like "y'all turn your heads when Kyle does something wrong, he's just as bad!!" is when I'm like "Wow! You don't actually watch the show, do you? :)"

I am of course very biased because I love Kyle but I can acknowledge that he isn't the best at times, but he tries and generally does what he thinks is right.

Best way I can think of it is that, comparatively, Kyle has had more good doings to wrong doings whereas Cartman is the opposite, doing more wrong than good, yet people compare them because what? Kyle gets angry sometimes? He's self righteous sometimes? He's a selfish little 10 year old sometimes?? Makes no sense.

Sorry to ramble in your inbox LMAO

PRETTY MUCH!! And no matter how much 'nuance' you try to apply to the situation - how severe their wrong doings were, how often, etc - you're never going to shake it out to a scenario where Kyle is in any way worse than Cartman. Beyond that, it's really just common sense, and even analyzing it comparatively isn't necessary - you're comparing a kid who's literal purpose in the show is to be a nazi. He's meant to be the offensive kid - you're trying to justify a cardboard cutout of a character, because Cartman is not meant to be anything more than a manipulative, antisemitic shithead. His place in the show is obvious, and you're not getting anywhere by tying yourself into knots trying to change reality; if you went up to Matt and Trey and asked who was worse, Cartman or Kyle, they'd look at you like you were legitimately insane. It's not even meant to be a question, and it's bewildering to me that people have somehow managed to trick themselves into thinking this is even arguable.

Kyle isn't a perfect character, but in general, he is a good character; his intentions are rarely bad, and he has a legitimate idea of what good is, which already separates him from Cartman. Cartman has no idea what good is, or what nice is, or what any of those things are - in Casa Bonita, he can't even differentiate being nice from wearing a nice sweater. His idea of good is whatever he does. But Kyle knows what good is, and he strives for it, every single day - in Crack Baby Athletic Association, he acknowledges (even subconsciously) that he isn't being good and desperately tries to justify himself and make his behavior more acceptable, knowing that what he's doing is wrong. Even in Kyle's worst moments and his worst failures, you're never going to look at the intent behind them and find completely unjustified hostility, or bigotry, or anything of the like. With Cartman, that's the sole motive behind nearly anything he does; hedonism in one way or another, with his preferred method being finding himself in every plane - gentile, white, male - to be superior, and everyone else to be deserving of elimination.

Tbh, here's my theory: the user that responded to me (and now blocked me LMFAOOO) is a ky/man shipper. Acknowledging that Kyle is a morally superior character to Cartman would force them to look their ship in the eyes and acknowledge what they're actually shipping, but pretending that Kyle is equally as evil allows them to justify it in possibly the shittiest way ever - well, this Jewish character sucks too, so it's fine if we ship him with his antisemitic abuser throughout the entire series. It's still not an adequate justification, and even if Kyle was the absolute worst, it would still not be acceptable - but perhaps it makes it easier for them to stomach?

NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR RAMBLING!! I always appreciate it <3

#asks #south park #basically! #and FOR THE RECORD i'm not condemning every single ky/man shipper here #idc as long as you acknowledge what you're actually shipping #trying to change the dynamic to make kyle as bad as cartman is fucked

[opossumgrl]

i started being nicer to myself 2 weeks ago and i started being nicer to myself in a different way 2 months ago and i started being nicer to myself in a different way 3 months ago and i plan to keep doing this and i hope it compounds and when i decide it’s finally enough, you’ll be the first person i tell. ok?

#basically! #s

[belethlegwen]

The Rescue - Chp 45 - Formidable Foes

Alternate title: "Chapter 82 - Henry Fights A Bird"

Good evening everyone!

This week has been uh, wildly challenging for me and my attention and no idea what this is going to mean for next week or the week-after's updates, but we're chuggin' along! We're working on it!

Please enjoy the latest chapter of The Rescue over on AO3 <3

Also hey if you like charity and hate Multiple Sclerosis and find streamers to be sometimes entertaining, check out www.gamersvsms.ca

Hope you all enjoy, I really hope it reads ok. I didn't have as much time to go over and edit it as I would've liked.

#This week has been just constantly putting out minor fires every time I turn around #but I got some writing done! #We got there! #Basically! #Wanted to make sure there was more than just the bird fight though I'm sure I'll be kicking myself in two weeks for not leaving a buffer #Oh well #We're livin' #We're doin' #I saved a meme that was applicable to this but it's on my other computer because I'm currently house-sitting #Which is just adding to all of the complications this week and next #Le sigh #Sorry for whining! #g/t #giant/tiny #giant tiny #g/t author #g/t writing #gtauthor #author thoughts #gentle giantess #gt

[newar]

omg can i ask why will u block blogs with tick marks on them? (as a nosey person in general 😳👀)

because they cost like $10 each or something and instead of giving that money to ppl on here who actually need help these blogs are buying pointless blue pixels for a joke that nobody’s laughing at

#basically! #also sorry this sounds hostile anon i’m not directing it at you! <3 #inbox #anon

[m-mount]

@Mason_Mount10: When your mood matches the weather.

☔

#( ╾ social media | twitter. ) #BASICALLY!

[foone]

(bad) Idea: Pronoun selections for multiple pronoun users where you have the ability to set relative rates of each pronoun. Like maybe like:

See you could set relative frequencies of each pronoun, and order them.

And yes I did mock this up using Visual Basic 6. That's just how my brain works.

#trans shitposting #visual basic 6

[happyheidi]

𝖠𝗋𝗍 𝖻𝗒 𝖠𝗇𝗇𝖺-𝖫𝖺𝗎𝗋𝖺 𝖲𝗎𝗅𝗅𝗂𝗏𝖺𝗇 | 𝖨𝖦: 𝖺𝗇𝗇𝖺𝗅𝖺𝗎𝗋𝖺_𝖺𝗋𝗍

#this has to be one of my favorite little comic ever cus YEEEES #I love me a good rain lighting thunder trio <3 #ESP while laying in bed with a good book #had to share #cottagecore #comics #art #cute #drawing #rain aesthetic #cozycore #cosycore #reading #comfycore #wholesome #we had MASSIVE rain here today and some lovely lightning & thunder . so this was basically my just switch night to say and bed to couch

[bookpdf]

unfortunately i Do feel better when i clean my living space and eat enough fruits and veggies and go outside and generally remember i am a mammal :| real pity that knowing this does not make it easier to do those things

#i am my own zookeeper basically and that kinda sucks

[anymouslydone]

#basic human rights #humanization #save palestine #save the children #save humanity #israel #palestine #islamic #islam #welcome to islam #stand with gaza #gaza genocide #free gaza #gaza strip #gaza #gazaunderattack

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The math just adds up!

#dungeon meshi #falin touden #marcille donato #farcille #I always loved how chapter 27 ends with them both so bloody and 28 starts with them in the bath. #not just because of how iconic the bathtub moment is but because you know they had to scrap off so much gore first. #I think everyone in the party took a very long and methodical bath but Falin was basically *all* blood*. #Being covered in blood is one of those 'just girly things' that women deserve to stop being shamed about. #I just don't think Chilchuck is progressive enough. He probably made them take a bath first B*/ #Okay jestering aside I want to just highlight - #The magnitude of Marcille's joy at seeing her dearest friend again! Of holding her and sharing her presence in the same room! #Something about this reunion feels like a beautiful dream you are afraid of waking up from...

[rochenn]

I think we should write more straight relationships with 2010s TV queerbait tactics. Let that man and that woman's lives be horribly intertwined, let them take bullets for the other, let them be each other's meaning but NO KISSING. They are holding each other platonically. You're crazy for reading anything romantic into it at all tbh

#basically whatever fentanyl hiromu arakawa put in roy mustang and riza hawkeye's relationship #also low key what i wish obi-wan and satine could have been like

[atissi]

i don't really like when people say dungeon meshi is accidentally good autistic representation, because while i understand not wanting to make conclusions without explicit confirmation from the author, there's always the weird assumption that non-western authors somehow don't know about things like neurodivergency/queerness/etc. (on top of the assumptions that east asian authors are somehow more naive or oblivious to "western" social issues).

given that dungeon meshi started being published in 2014, it's not really a "work belonging to its times"—it's as contemporary as any other media we discuss on this site, which means it should be fair to assume it engages with contemporary topics (and at the very least, you shouldn't say that the representation is accidental with so much confidence)

but anyways, the chapter "perfect communication" in ryoko kui's "terrarium in a drawer" is some of the most straightforward autistic representation I've seen, and from now on I'm going to assume that laios's character writing is absolutely intentional in that regard:

#beepbeep.txt #dungeon meshi #ryoko kui #this is me trying to explain h/ollow knight lore #also yayyyy reading new things. chapter 18 'spring' is basically UFUT if you squint (sorry for the jumpscare if you know UFUT) #but the last two pages were such a surprising gut punch....it's hard not to see it as a metaphor for both the experience of raising childre #and of taking care of your parents in old age....aughh....