#end of dreams faceless era

[minimoefoe]

dream face reveal first weekend of october, halloween ends second weekend of october, doctor who third weekend of october..... there's a lot going on next month oh lawd

#natchats #and in a way each one is like #the end of an era #obvs 13 is dyinf #michael is probs gonna die #end of dreams faceless era #me and my friend are planning to see halloween ends on the day it comes out #we cant book it yet so im basically gonna be eyeing the website so we can get good seats bc idk if its gonna get booked fast or not

[suenitos]

A point for point summary of dream's drituation talk from 11/10/2023 stream under the cut

(disclaimer: this is not a transcript. a lot of this is taken from his words, but with some clarifying wording from me and some shifting i did of certain points he made to create a more structured and detailed summary. i recommend watching the vod to hear it from his voice and his wording because there are some details i left out, but this is basically what he said if you dont feel comfortable approaching the topic through audio.)

1. he didnt groom her. there's lots of complications in talking about it because its a very intense/serious thing to accuse someone of.

2. it's very scary to talk about for him because its such a real issue and anything you say in defense can devalue other victims from having their voices heard. but, she is a liar, and manipulated the situation. its scary for him to say that because it can devalue victims and come across as accusatory

3. because people made accusations of this sort to other people close to him (sapnap, bad) he was the first person to jump to their defense so he had to handle this very differently as the one in the hot seat. he told people not to publicly jump to his defense.

4. because she did not end up going to the police/legal route, suing her to prove he didnt send her any messages on snap or IG at all would be very difficult. defamation is insanely hard to prove because it involves having to prove the person you're suing is lying, lying on purpose, and with malicious intent.

5. for first few months, lawyers told him to wait and just countersue if she did go through suing, and sit tight. nothing moved at all from her side, so nothing ended up happening. he feels more comfortable to talk about it because enough time has passed and she has done nothing to go forward with her accusations. on her end, she only proved he messaged her privately but did not provide strong evidence of grooming. deleted messages of her own, apparently had a bf and fake accounts he doesnt really know exactly what happened

6. timing thing- he has to think of public opinion and his reputation because unfortunately a lot of this hinges on his reputation as dream. him and his lawyers had to think about the "strategy" of talking about it with timing, and he was busy with other stuff, and now that he's becoming more active again content wise he feels it's appropriate to address it.

7. plans to make a video on dreamxd in the future to talk about it

more details:

-he downloaded snapchat data to reveal that she doctored stuff, he questions her choice to not do that in order to prove her accusations

-didnt know she was a stan (which he admits sounds ridiculous), deleted the whole chat from instagram multiple times (swiped out of inbox, but until you block someone on instagram the messages stay forever). chatted about music and only had friendly messages becuase he thought she wasnt as big a fan/wanting to get into streaming because she asked him about that

-he has 3 snaps: priv priv snapchat (close friends family), private public snapchat (mod team, editors, old irls, csgo lobbies etc) <- the one she was on, the Public snapchat (that everyone can add him on, dreampublic)

questions from chat:

-why did you add her on snapchat? talking about music, wanted opinions outside of friends, and wanted to share on snap (deletes messages after 24 hours because she could leak it from ig and he didn't trust her)

-but she was a fan? didnt think she was that big a fan, also he tried to get her out of the inbox many times. assumed she was a small cc or a fan but not a stan

-why on personal snap? WASNT personal snap, it was front facing but it wasnt his public public one

-sexting: he thought she was 18 which doesnt really matter BECAUSE nothing he "wanted" from her was sexual. he never sexted her, her story takes place during the faceless era and that he added her on snap and then a week and a half of "talking" sent her a dick pic

-what proof does he have to show dishonesty: timeframes, intentions, snap data, transcripts of IG dms, she deleted a lot of messages that made her look weird that were showed in her video

-gift cards: grooming often involves gift giving and this is something people weaponized against him because he gave her a gift card as she said it was her birthday. she had said it was her birthday and he gave her one (he gave a gift cards to his mods etc for christmas and had a lot left over), not grooming just him being nice

-the meetup: the only person he met up with while faceless was sapnap, he didnt meet up with anyone during that era

-bikini comment: (apparently) he said she was gorgeous after she sent him a picture of her in a bikini when she was 18. he said saying that compliment probably wasnt far fetched from him but that message wasnt there on snap data, proving he didnt say it. he also thinks given the fact he is a massive figure who was faceless this entire time that it makes no sense for him to be so careless about who he's meeting up with or messaging and he always has to be careful about how he approaches messaging people who are under 18 or who he doesnt know. considering he had never even showed one of his best friends his face before meeting up with him, it makes no sense that he would be so risky about being "intimate" with someone he isn't that close with.

final comments:

-it affected him more than anyone knows. he was a victim in a situation but he doesnt want to victimize himself. he cares more about actual survivors and he wants to be respectful of that and be careful of what he says because it could come across as harmful or triggering to survivors

-there are factors of this situation that are out of his control like her (she can just say "believe victims" and people will be quicker to jump to her defense due to her positionality), and he wants this to die off as much as possible. he's talking about this against the advice of his management but as dream it's never going to die down so might as well talk about it.

-he understands as a controversial and flawed figure, the only way to convince people and get through to people is through compassion when people are spreading misinformation or malicious information against dream -> then he moved on to a conversation about general misinformation and how he thinks we as an audience can help mitigate toxicity and increase compassion and kindness from the community

reiterating this again: this is not the only time he's talking about this. he plans to make a video on dreamxd providing more concrete proof and actually going into depth more than this stream.

#tw grooming #drituation #also “her” being amanda to make it clear #take care of yourselves please i know its a touchy topic for a lot of people 🫂

[valkyrietookme]

Meikyuu Denshi Kairou translation

Japanese lyrics taken directly from the MV after the English lyrics. Division of stanzas is just a guess.

English

The souls enticed by the labyrinth halls (An die Freude, Libera me) (An die Freude, Libera me) Ah, the melody submerged in the overwritten myth (An die Freude, Libera me) Now, shall we unleash the hallways looming in the electricity? (Punishment that questions love, the song that must bring deliverance) While being judged by a cruel trick Behind the Veil of anonymity Becomes a departed soul The Underground dances upon the trial’s end Surrounded by a faceless choir, a lonesome soloist Let us proudly sing now, this is the truth! Oh, souls with no belonging This era’s Agitator, who rises the curtain towards bliss Audience, you shall come now! To this new world, erratically dancing between ones and zeros (The song that governs the intersecting labyrinth halls, now give love to the invited souls) A pastime even more cruel than a dream Does everyone within the Veil dare to hope? The Perfect world that approaches myth Let our pity resound and reach the faceless choir now The pouring light that saves the feeble souls from prohibition Captivated by the frail waves The lost children of this age Now, you shall come! To this new world trapped between ones and zeros (The love of the labyrinth halls is the Perfect world)

Japanese

 迷宮回廊誘イシ魂　 (An die Freude, Libera me) (An die Freude, Libera me) ああ、上書きされた神話に沈む旋律 (An die Freude, Libera me) さあ、解き放とうか電子に浮かぶ回廊 (愛問ウ罰審議統ベル歌) 悪戯に裁きあいながら 匿名のVeilの向こう 亡霊となり 結審ニ踊ルUnderground 顔の無いクワイアに囲まれた 孤独なソリスト 高らかに歌おう 寄る辺なき者達よここが真実だ 歓喜への幕��上げた 時代のAgitator Audience来るがいい 0と1が咲き乱れ舞う新世界へ (会ウ迷宮回廊統ベル歌 誘イシ魂二愛ヲ) 夢よりも残酷な遊び 誰もがVeilの中で 願うのだろう 神話ニ向カウPerfect world 顔もないクワイアに憐れみを 響かせよう 禁断の救いと か弱き群れに注ぐ奏こそ光 脆弱な波を惑う 時代の迷い子 さあ来るがいい 0と1に閉じ込められた新世界へ (迷宮回廊愛ハPerfect world)

#enstars #enstars translations #ensemble stars #song translations #my attempts at translation

[mischas]

i wish i could celebrate this mischa and ben thing the way i did when jennifer aniston and david schwimmer admitted they crushed on each other while doing friends but ughhhh it's honestly REALLY annoying to me that they had to be yeaaars apart in age bc i genuinely thought they were adorable back then, but also she was still so young too, it's not like their age gap was in lieu of she was 25 and he was 33 or whatever if you get what i mean. and i can also acknowledge that they had great chemistry (of course) but ://// sigh

I'm taking a day or two to bask in being right because it makes everything slot into place when it comes to Mischa's on-set treatment that has been on my mind since 2021 (if not 2009 when I first watched the show). Everything fits now and it makes every single higher-up look horrendous. It also makes the book look even more farcical than it already did.

The Jen/David revelation was so cute! Yeah it's usually every shipper's dream to get the revelation I got yesterday. I'm still processing. I think... I think there was a lot of rightful pearl clutching going on yesterday but a lot of this was actually (now we know) accurately reported on in the press in 2003/2004. And I don't have access to that much more publicly available info than most people but even I knew back in the 2010s as a high schooler that their chemistry was fire in s1 and nothing in s2/s3 with the exception of some eras. And chemistry doesn't just change from vibes. So yes I'm being annoying about being right but this was out there. And it's really not ~that~ shocking for 2003. I'm most shocked Mischa said it aloud. I thought she'd hint at it until I reached middle age.

B** deserves a million lashings but so does Patrick Rush (casting director), Josh, Stephanie, Bob, McG, and all those faceless execs who knew and encouraged it for a time. I'm very, very mad that MISCHA ended up being ostracized for it in both the script and on-set dynamics. Jesus H !!! That is so beyond messed up and I am unraveling it in time. The book is a piece of garbage for countless reasons but now I have to reevaluate basically every section to see how they covered this gaping hole up. Execs being called to set, Steph talking shit about Mischa's later boyfriends, the unbelievable way they constantly talk around her, the sober coach, the reason why Josh kept RM apart for so long in s2, M/B chemistry tests never once being mentioned, etc.

#ask #anonymous #mb tea #there is... so much

[barbiegirldream]

Just imagining Dream in his faceless era and we’re all sitting around wondering what he’s doing and the man is just grinding on his stationary bike for hours on end. like why did he do that

[emmedoesntdomath]

The faymus Jack Kelly

*sigh* well. unless we think of any more, this is our last one. it’s the end of an era, y’all.

so of course I made jack last.

francis “jack kelly” sullivan was born to a faceless father and mother, and immediately taken to an orphanage. there, he was given the state-ordained name of francis sullivan, completely ignoring his hispanic roots and background. he grew up knowing nothing about himself except for that he felt wrong and clearly, he wasn’t wanted. the system wasn’t great, and it was run by the church, not the state. by the time he was nine, he had given up on any and all gods.

he ran away first at seven, and was caught after two days by snyder, who he learned very quickly to hate. he runs away again, and again.

he’s always caught. part of him wonders if the sky hated him.

he meets charlie morris in the refuge (his personal hell) at twelve, and his world becomes a little brighter. he becomes jack, charlie crutchie (jack still hates that one), and they run away again, this time together, and a young italian boy with curls and a slight accent stumbles upon them hiding in an alley. they move to the top of the lodging house, and jack kelly starts hawking the headline.

he’s scarily good at it, and people notice quickly. the older kids start picking him out of crowds, start remembering his name and clapping him on the back when he earns some extra money. and when their leader, knuckles, ages out, they all look to him. never mind that he’s only fifteen, still a little green and more than a little dumb. but he’s never been good at saying no to people when under pressure, so he starts calling himself the king of manhattan.

the name doesn’t really stick, not as much as cowboy, but the friends he had made do, and soon enough, he’s got newsies beneath him who would follow him to the ends of the earth. two years pass, and everything’s fine. great, even. jack flirts, sells, draws, does everything in between.

and the voice in his mind hisses you will never be enough

when he meets the jacobs brothers, he’s tired, annoyed, and more than a tad hungover. but david jacobs- he’s alive, more alive than jack has ever been. he’s smart, funny, easy on the eyes. he’s everything jack wants to be, everything that should make jack worry about his being of the king of manhattan ending soon. but for once, he’s not worried.

instead, he can’t stop staring at david jacobs’ eyes or mouth, and oh, that’s a problem.

then the strike happens, and david becomes davey, and jack should really be worried about this whole thing, but davey davey davey. he can’t stop drawing him, or seeing him in his dreams. he takes the money, tries running (again)(why does he always run?), but comes back to davey, and oh, yes, this is a very stubborn problem.

they kiss and fall in bed one night after jack’s drunk enough whiskey to make him start whispering things in davey’s ear. everything changes, but nothing changes. for years. and jack? well, jack can be stubborn, too, and he can pretend he’s not DROWNING in self-loathing.

race finally cracks, and yells at him for three hours straight, and then they kiss again, but it’s better this time, real this time, and jack decides he’s going to spend the rest of his life drawing david jacobs. they grow old, as old as a newsie gets, and they grow up.

get jobs, find their way around, away, and back to each other. have a couple kids. lose a couple friends. but in the end, jack kelly is still francis sullivan, and the sky has always known that francis sullivan loves david jacobs in his bones, even if it hates him.

davey leaves jack, leaves francis, but it’s the kind of leave that’s like falling asleep; sweet, peaceful, painless. francis keeps breathing, keeps moving, keeps mourning. his hands always draw those eyes. always.

when he leaves, too, he had never been happier.

(maybe, just maybe, the sky didn’t hate him.)

(for how could the sky hate one so loved?)

#:) #newsies #92sies #uksies #livesies #jack kelly #francis sullivan #jack kelly newsies #jack x davey #davey jacobs #david jacobs #javid #javey #javey newsies #emme’s bad ideas

[message-notfound]

The end of an era. The end of florida truthing, waiting for “soon” to turn into “tomorrow”. The end of faceless dream, of sneaky little Snapchat photos with his face and hands blurred, of masked Instagram posts.

But also the beginning. The beginning of dream making irl content. The beginning of dream getting to finally, finally be apart of the meetups. The beginning of George’s life with his best friends in America. The beginning of fans, young and old, seeing them in random places and asking them for photos.

It’s the end of an era, but every end creates a new beginning.

#dreamwastaken #dream #georgenotfound #gnf #sapnap #dream team meetup #face reveal #dteam meetup #dteam #I’m emotional today leave me alone

[gibbyslounge]

its been three years since dream uploaded his first video, which isn’t a long time in the grand scheme of things, but to have been faceless, afraid of going outside in fear of being recognized before you feel ready, and unable to meet all your friends, especially your best friend, must’ve felt like forever.

today is the end of an era thats difficult to fathom coming to an end, but i could not be more happy. im so excited to see the person who unhesitatingly brought along all his friends, new and old, as he experienced unprecedented growth. im so excited to see the person who unabashedly flirts with his friends (one maybe a little more than others), and is not afraid to praise and say his favorite things about them on the spot. im so excited to see the person who loves the rain and runs around in it, loves college football and tweets about it to queer ppl who just want him to be happy, is a self-proclaimed “denier” of ghosts, loves cats with his life, loves taking baths with bath bombs and candles, is the “idea man”, and hosts “podcasts” to catch up with his community and listen to music. who reeled people in with his voice, confidence, and minecraft skills (??) and inspires people with his tendency to go for everything and anything, because what is life if not just one huge experiment. im excited to see what the future holds not just for dream, but for george and sapnap who have all stuck together through thick and thin, side by side. i dont know what life has in store for them, and what they have in store for us, but i believe it’ll be big, beautiful, scary, and filled with so much love and happiness- i can’t wait to watch them through it all.

#cryiiiiingggg #emooootionalll #hi btw miss this place hope yall r ok #<33333333 #dreamwastaken #dream love #dream team #dream #dreammysunshine

[calamitydaze]

...what uh...what happened in january? /gq

-@robs-sideblobs (new to the fandom as of like, june)

(actual explanation under the cut 😭)

okay disclaimer: this happened ages ago and it’s unique in the sense that it pretty much never breached containment, so it wasn’t documented and everyone who was there kinda agreed not to talk about it anymore. so this is all just based on what i can remember, i don’t have receipts or anything (but i don’t mind you asking at all! i hate when people gatekeep stuff i wasn’t there for so i’m happy to explain, just wanna be clear why people are so hush hush about it)

so in november 2021 this guy popped up on twitter called manatreed who was an up-and-coming faceless streamer (he’d been posting sporadically since june, but people only started noticing then). and this was the era where dream team christmas was still a possibility, so people started putting the pieces together: faceless white guy in florida, has dream’s exact pair of arthritis gloves, wears the same clothing brand sapnap does, claims to be a streamer but never promoted a twitch, followed by/has dms with dream and sapnap and interactions with a lot of big ccs + ANNOUNCED TO BE JOINING THE DSMP despite having No content whatsoever, “manatreed” is an almost exact anagram of “dream team”, irl name is ollie and his first tweet was on the day sapnap posted a video of him doing an ollie (YES some of these are reaches but they’re all things people were saying) and most damning of all, dream hadn’t said “it’s not me /srs” even though he normally hates people impersonating him. what if....... this was dream?

and then manatreed says he’ll do his first stream when he hits 300k on twitter, and two months go by, and in january he hits 300k on twitter and goes live on the dsmp. and it’s... not dream. it’s just a guy. who isn’t dream. OKAY. he and dream explain (i think-- i don’t remember this part super clearly) that they were old friends who reconnected when mana wanted to start content creation, and dream agreed to give him a boost. which, okay. still fucking wild but it’s less weird if he isn’t Just Some Guy. and i was a twitter stan at the time (lurking on dtblr), but people on my tl really warmed up to him. i was pretty indifferent, but he seemed sweet enough, so sure, whatever. he ended the stream an hour or two later and we assumed he’d be continuing with content creation

and this is the part i’m gonna have to be really vague about unfortunately because a lot of it hinges on doxxed info which i don’t want to spread at all. but very very shortly after that first stream (could’ve been the day after? i’m not sure) a thread came out alleging that manatreed’s real identity was someone with a history of abusing women including an active battery charge, and dream had let mana live in his house and given him an online platform knowing this. again, without going into the info (the fandom, at least on twt, was worryingly willing to hold hands with doxxers and cyberstalkers to get to the bottom of this), the only thing i can really say about my opinion is that given dream’s history as a victim of domestic violence i found it unlikely that he would knowingly harbor and promote an abuser, and that it would be incredibly uncharacteristically stupid if he did know. i also know that the thread coming out was part of a planned takedown by kiwifarms + leaktwt, who have a history of faking things (regardless of whether or not it was true, that’s part of the context of a lot of dream’s controversies in this era). dream’s initial response was.... not good (when people refer to “the gullible tweet” this is what they mean-- he said we were being gullible for believing the accusations and sapnap immediately went live as damage control) but he later wrote a twitlonger which you can read here. recently manatreed’s twitch bio was changed to say that he will not ever be coming back to content creation, and... that was that.

as someone who’s been here since november 2020 i can say january was the worst incident to ever happen-- the fandom recovered, but it’s never really been the same. i think although it ended in a way that was satisfying enough to let most of us continue supporting him, it shook the foundation and the situation happening now is reminding people a lot of that, which might be why the reaction has been so extreme. so yeah! that was january

#i hope this doesn't sound too melodramatic i just wanted to stress that-- yeah people don't like to talk about it #which is why i won't be answering any more asks about this cause it's not a discussion i want to foster #but you're free to dm me if you'd like! i won't share any extra info but i don't mind discussing it one on one #and once again i don't mind you guys asking :] i hope this clears things up #bella answers #anon #robs-sideblobs

[drusic]

you became a fan after the face-reveal?? for some reason i never thought about people joining after - i didn't think there could be dream fans who didn't know him by his mask branding. dream has always just been ... well, faceless. it feels weird that there are people who have only ever known him by his face

and i don't know how you're dealing with the revoked face reveal, but i can promise you, no one from the pre face-reveal era is faring well. it's like we got hooked on crack coccaine when he face revealed, and we're going into withdrawals now

yeah! basically my friend introduced me to him, was not interested in mc content in the slightest, told me about the face reveal and i got curious so i watched it live, thought dream was cute, watched some dnf compilations after my friend explained all the lore, twitchcon happen while i was on vacation and my friend kept me updated on the dnf stuff, this video dropped and i realized i love Big Tall Men, “joined” the fandom (as in, kept up with what he was doing but didn’t watch lots of content yet cause i was busy and a bit scared i was not gonna be into it cause i dont play minecraft - spoiler alert ended up really liking it anyway), drituation happened, was very normal about it, started getting more and more into him/dteam during the summer (december-march for me) and abandoned my old fandom for them. very epic!

anyway. to answer your question… it annoys me to even think about it and i hate that i feel that way cause i don’t think it’s rational so i like to stop and really think why. basically i just don’t see him with the mask on and think it’s dream, it’s just someone with a mask on. there’s one vid of him talking and being very sweet at vidcon that made me go oh that’s my dreamie! and it helped me to actually… connect him with the mask. i guess it’s kinda like how ppl were struggling to connect his voice to his face after he face revealed. also, i saw an anon talking about how seeing him w the mask reminded them that this is Dream, famous minecraft youtuber w over 30 million subs and i thought that was super interesting cause it’s the exact same opposite for me. that’s really why i made that post tbh, was wondering if more ppl felt that way

btw, i was hesitant to say i joined so recently at the beginning because ppl on twitter are v weird about that (like constantly reminding you of everything you’ve missed on, how apparently old smiletwt are the only ones who remember stuff like dream having a collapsed lung like newbies don’t watch old content lmfao) but i’ve seen some anons and even popular blogs like urlwasfound who also joined around that time so it’s not just me! honestly seeing that made me feel more comfy about mentioning it. twitter is kinda… not nice about new fans :)

#damn that’s long as hell sorry #random-shit-writing #asks

[minimoefoe]

dream face reveal, dnf meeting and george moving is suuuuch an end of an era and i'm so excited for them to finally be together as a group and to see what videos they make but also i'm gonna miss the faceless, pre-meet up era so much it's unreal like it's literally only been a couple of days and thinking about how it's over already gives me this weird sad nostalgia

#mcyt #dreamwastaken #sapnap #georgenotfound #natchats

[honkkarl]

listening to older by alec benjamin thinking about how dreams faceless era is about to end and and and

#this may be reaching but hear me out. #milky talks

[fennorians]

TES Summerfest Day 5: Divine & Language

Summary: Miraak contemplates Dovahzul and his own name.

Tagging: @tes-summer-fest​ @vilkas​ @friend-of-giants​

Word Count: 752

Warnings: None

Miraak speaks it like a mother tongue, and yet Dovahzul still feels holy.

When he first spoke it, it had been cause for fear. His parents - now faceless phantoms of his past - had ordered him to keep silent. They’d never known why he knew the tongue of dragons in the way he knew how to breathe, or sleep, or open his eyes. He’d never known why half his thoughts came in murmurs of Dovahkiin, mahtiidaal, unadaan,* nor why he dreamed in words he’d never been taught. He burned inside with a nameless fire, and the smoke bore whispers that he was meant for more than the simple hand he’d been dealt - whispers in a tongue forbidden to all but the greatest of his people.

When he’d been taught it properly, he’d come to see it as sacred. Speaking as a dragon would was his right as a priest, after all. No mortal beyond his order would dare to speak it, much less take a name in it. Miraak has become him so fully that he cannot remember who he was before, when he was a child destined for a life in the shadow of his betters. He’d wondered, then, at what it had meant to be named allegiance-guide. He’d read significance after significance into it over the years, stared at the flowing runes forming his name until they’d utterly subsumed whoever he was before. He was not that nameless boy he’d once been - he’d become something divine, holy.

Later, he’d come to learn his name was a shackle.

Dovahzul had granted him power and stolen it away in turns. Wielding the language had left him beholden to cruel masters, but he’d once thought that was a better fate than that of the many who’d never dare speak a word of it. 

He isn’t certain how much blood had stained his hands before he learned that he was wrong, but he knows where it led him - to rebellion, to war, to Apocrypha. Miraak is a name soaked in blood and grief, chained and caged by one tyrant after another, but it is his nonetheless. To run from it would be as pointless as running from the sunset, or the coming of winter. To live with it is a burden akin to lifting all the world on his shoulders - his hands will never be clean, his heart will never be unshadowed, his thoughts will never be cloudless. It is the price he pays to bear his name, and it is one he embraces with the fevered vigor of a warrior in battle-rage. His past is inevitable, but it has not reached its end.

After era upon era, Dovahzul is still power, but its purpose is something else entirely. The Thu’um is still worship - not for any god or master, but for what he himself can do. His purpose is now his own. The words he speaks are his, not a mere conduit for the will of some higher being. He writes passages in Dovahzul because he can, reads words carved into the bones of the world, lets his Voice tear asunder the sky, and finds an odd sanctity therein. For all the pain the dragonstongue has brought, there is a savage beauty to it, a greater purpose he still hasn’t quite grasped.

He’d like to think he’s getting close to the new divinity within the language, even if it burns. He’d like even more to think that he’s learned new shades of sanctity in the words as he teaches them to his fellow Dovahkiin - the last of their kind, learning the Voice of the first. There’s a poetry to it, as fine as any the gods could pen. Though the youngest of their kind hardly seems to find a nameless god in the Thu’um, he is no less devoted, and he is no less skilled with the words. He’s known from the start he was - after all, it was through knowing him that Miraak’s own name began to take on new meaning.

Now, Miraak means freedom, his allegiance owed to himself and a path of his own choosing. Miraak means guiding himself onwards from his past, learning from it and knowing he has grown from the cruelty he once embodied. Miraak is a man who defies fate, whose Voice shapes a world where man will never again bow to dragons.

Perhaps that is the real divinity to the dragonstongue - that the words which can destroy a world can also rebuild it. *Dragonborn, destined, chosen.

#tesfest22 #miraak #my writing #skyrim

[yeleltaan]

From @hexenjagd

It is a gentle gesture. With a turn of her wrist she cups his chin, cradling his head within her welcoming palm and holding him there. Her fingers fitted to the shape of his jaw perfectly as she delicately tilted his head her way.

A gentle urging for him to turn her way and face her. A beckoning.

"Come now, raise your head. Lift your gaze and meet mine." it was a command, gentle in intent-- uttered through a half whisper.

"I've rarely seen such success in many an era. You rose from nothing. Hardly able to stand or even give me your name, narrowly avoiding the embrace of death, from embers to flame. Look at you. You've come so far-- transformed. Whole and beautiful. Now, raise your head with pride. You have survived."

There’s little else to see. Nothing worth a look upon the grotto’s ridged arching walls, reverberating the whisper of rain outside past the faceless bushes. Still his gaze remains downcast, absorbed by earth-sunk stones. Every so often a stray glance dares peek through black strands to briefly settle upon some corner of her contours, reaffirming him with the glimpse of boots, of a hand or the ends of her ebony locks that she is indeed still beside him. But neither stare lasts, none dare remain, he simply cannot bring himself to fully look at her.

How many times has he thought back to the distant days spent inside that tent? Thought about all the things he could have told her if he could speak the way he can today. With a solid dominion over the language they shared, understanding him would have proven much simpler. Restlessly deterred by the suffocating hold of his ignorance, so much more could have been said had he been free of it from the start. When solitude struck low, he knows he wished he had more to remember her by. Wished that and more.

And yet, is this moment not weaved from the same thread of impossible opportunity? The same wishfulness as those dreams, the sort that visited him when exhaustion got the better of him. What is this silence then, Cayin? Has she returned, made her way back to you against all probability, so you could fall quiet beside her again?

This is your chance to say what you could not.

Her touch settles under his jaw, mindful, deliberate. It doesn’t bear the same warmth it once did, but then neither did her hand in those liar dreams. Scarred bearer of comforts, it still shapes a feeling of shelter truer than any walls, as does her velvety voice, first bringer of speech to his ears. At last she brings him to look upon her, truly and sincerely. So much more vivid than any product of the mind, yet perfumed in a strange bittersweetness. Perhaps because this isn't how he imagined it. Perhaps because his eyes do not lie, and they tell clearly that the two of them are changed, so very changed since then.

But where the proof of time roots him in this indecision he cannot explain, she responds in opposite: acknowledging it in a most celebratory manner, all in recognition towards him, towards what he is today in relation to what she knew him as. In this praise, in this short tale worthy of being preserved as an epigraph in a book, she welcomes him.

Success. When she puts it that way, it’s difficult to deny. Every need fulfilled has been followed by the search of the next, but to consider what has already been achieved is a pleasure of its own worth lingering in. She continues, calls him complete, calls him beautiful, names him survivor, like titles conferred by the sword that settles upon the head and shoulders of the newly knighted. Only he does not bow, as his head is called to rise. And rise it does, hesitantly, in spite of the knot tugging at his throat. Fists clench under their sleeves until the urge to shiver ceases, and they release, open hands rising to meet the one she placed under his chin.

“Not nothing.” He speaks in a quiet certainty. Claws grasp her fingers tenderly, delicately pulling her hand down and turning his wrists so his thumbs may rest on her palm. “I had you.”

#man... MAN... #this was going to be something short/relatively light but #there is so much weight behind this interaction. What she says here and the place of this conversation in their story #it's tremendous. I couldn't help it I had to describe it in more detail #so much so in fact that I was hesitant to write this because I'm still getting the hang of it again. This warrants some special writing #but I wanted to give it a shot anyways! I cannot pass up the chance to do this #You did beautiful work with your ask by the way. Absolutely lovely and it filled me with inspiration to continue it :] #the fact that Cayin has definitely thought back to everything he has learned... and lowkey wished she could see it #wondered what she would have said to him (when he thought her to be dead... which she kinda was but that's beside the point) #The way she acknowledges it here- going way beyond in the way she does it too! It means a lot to him and he hardly knows how to respond #he's learned to keep his composure much better #I could talk a lot about all of this but it's late over here! But you'll surely hear plenty more about it sooner or later ;y #hexenjagd #Elden Ring verse

[s-decor]

Chthonic Fantasia (my review of 'Fellini's Casanova')

Enlightenment-era Venice, the actual birthplace of Casanova, serves as the perfect metaphor for Casanova’s life. Man’s lofty ambitions, which aim to elevate him above mere earthly mortals: art, architecture, and social pursuits, float perilously atop unnatural, fragile structures, which will inevitably sink and be consumed by the primordial depths of the lagoon. In Fellini’s adaptation of the notorious libertine’s memoirs, Casanova likewise attempts a failed transcendence of reality through elaborate fantasy and self-aggrandizement, which lead him only back to himself. 

Fellini’s vision for his Casanova biopic was to create a “portrait of nothingness.” The director hated the man, dismissing him as a “facade” and “barren” with a “non-existent life” who lived in a “fog.” This take inspired the look of the character: far from a “Latin lover,” Donald Sutherland’s shaven, bulbous head and prosthetic nose and chin give him the appearance of a worm, faceless and without personality, and as he attempts to gain patronage as a great intellectual, he slithers from court to court, and bed to bed, leaving little to no impression. 

Inside the courts, despite their ornate costumes and luxurious furnishings, almost everyone Casanova encounters looks like a corpse: bloodless with caked on makeup and garishly flamboyant clothing that only highlight their anemic pallor; the living dead entombed by decadence. Desperate for recognition, the worm Casanova parasitically attempts to burrow his way into the diseased and corrupt elite underworld through slimy flattery, pompous boasts, and plagiarized poetry. Indeed, at one point in the film, at an entomologist’s home, he faints at the sight of an insect being stabbed, saying that he could feel the stabs himself, a rare instance of empathy. 

Casanova’s prodigious sex life is rendered as nothing but a repetitive, robotic procedure. To underscore this, whenever he initiates intercourse, he ritualistically turns on a flightless, mechanical, musical bird, that impotently flaps its metal wings and dances to a childlike tune. Despite his impersonal and cold approach to love-making, Casanova insists that he is not just a body, but that his wit and intelligence are what sustain him in the act. He has sex with a potential patron as an alchemical experiment to help her achieve “purification.” For Casanova, sex can’t just be “sex:” what should be the most intimate experience between two people, is an elaborate science experiment in his quest to ascend to greatness. 

When we reach the point of Casanova’s death, he is old and alone, with an unnaturally powdered and rouged face, evocative of Aschenbach in Visconti’s Death in Venice. At the moment of his death, Nino Rota’s childlike and haunting mechanical lullaby plays as Casanova is reunited with his last great sexual conquest, a robotic doll, and they dance on the frozen lagoon. A beautifully sad image, it highlights that what Casanova ultimately dreamed for was death: an impossible frozen crystallization of perfection, rather than revel in the messy sorrows and joys of life on earth.

After rewatching the film, I was reminded of another movie that also depicts a blank man passively pursuing an over-the-top idea of erotic adventure that culminates in a Venetian masked ball: Eyes Wide Shut. After trying to match his wife’s adulterous fantasies with his own, the film ends with a reconciliation: 

Alice Harford: I do love you and you know there is something very important we need to do as soon as possible. Dr. Bill Harford: What's that? Alice Harford: Fuck.

The final word has an oddly romantic ring to it; it reminds them that they need to get out of their heads, strip the erotic of all of its pretentions and politics, and get back down to earth in an act of mutual recognition and sharing. While fantasy is a powerful internal resource from which to draw upon for inspiration and energy, too much escapism and narcissistic indulgence can close you off from the greatest experiences in the material world, including love.

“Fellini’s Casanova” translates Casanova’s memoirs into a tragic tale spoken not by the man, but by the void in Casanova’s heart. While it’s certainly not a film for everyone, and may even disgust and exhaust many, there’s no denying that Fellini’s trademark id-driven direction, indulgence, surrealism, and flashes of childlike sentiment and pathos are well-suited to the subject.

#federico fellini #fellinis casanova #casanova

[tinogiehd]

i was following this person that as soon as dream face revealed posted like two posts abt his face and being proud of him and then left, the next day all they kept doing was posting abt how much they missed masked dream and abt how they wished dream would continue doing faceless stuff (like there was literally nth else in their page) and i completely get not being able to handle change bc same but they kept compaining abt maskless dream while he was going through all that hate and the # putthemaskbackon was happening and idk i rlly hated the neg energy and how it felt like they were indirectly participating in this #

sorry i had to rent and idk if what i said is like understandable, am i a bad person for that?? i dont think so?

you definitely aren’t a bad person for feeling like this. obviously there’s being unable to handle change, especially one as jarring and massive as this but if there was nothing else on their page it sort of seems like bait i won’t lie. it’s strange of them to switch up SO quickly, like the faceless era has barely ended and it’s certainly not entirely gone. at the end of the day, this is better for him and even if you don’t like it for whatever reason you need to be respectful of that fact. definitely not weird or bad that you were bothered by that behavior anon

#also #I don’t mean jarring in a bad way obviously just like any change it takes time getting used to is all #discourse #aya asks