#by people more clever than me

[thestuffedalligator]

Rewatching Truman Show for the first time in a long time, and the detail that’s stuck with me this time is the set design.

The characters drive modern cars and hock modern products, but it’s all presented with a veneer of 1950s wholesome applecheeked Americana. Truman’s life is presented as an escape for the audience from the drudgery of the modern day, and the aesthetic they’ve chosen for this is the post-war economic boom. This is the simple time, the movie says. This is the good time. Doesn’t the modern day suck? Let’s go back and see our friends from the days when life was good.

And it’s a lie. Truman’s life is a lie, and the image of white picket fenced suburbia they’ve presented is a lie. It’s an elaborate construction to recreate a false memory that’s comfortable for advertisers. The movie is a satire, but it’s also a very blatant statement against the nostalgia for a golden age which never existed. It’s a lie. It doesn’t exist.

I don’t know. I’m spitballing. I’m biased because I despise mid-20th century Americana and I naturally treat it with hostility, but it’s very gratifying to see a movie kind of agree with me.

#the truman show #i’m sure this is a point that’s been made before #by people more clever than me #but goddammit this interests me #10k #20k #30k

[lansplaining]

I see a ton of SVSSS stuff on tumblr and am kinda curious but the teacher/student romance aspect kinda puts me off…is it worth reading anyway?

well, if it helps, the lead himself is equally put off by the student/teacher aspect, if not more. and it's frankly the least of their problems

more seriously-- because of the transmigration, the book is so meta, and therefore it doesn't quite come off as your standard student/teacher thing? during the phase of the book when Binghe is a teenager and actively SQQ's student, SQQ is constantly seeing him in this kind of double-vision of being charmed by this unexpectedly sweet kid (who, we see in extras, he not only doesn't have sexual feelings for, but can't even recognize that Binghe has a crush) and being aware of/frightened of the adult Binghe who he (thinks) he knows is coming. his perspective on Binghe is always shaped by the fact that he already "knows" him as an adult.

and speaking of SQQ's perspective/obliviousness... the thing I found way more off-putting the first time I read it was my failure to recognize how unreliable SQQ's narration is, so I spent the whole book like "does he even... like him??????" so like not only does it not come across as an inappropriate teacher-student thing, if you don't realize that you need to be reading between the lines of SQQ's responses and basically ignoring everything he says he doesn't feel, it can come across as not even a romance at all. once you realize that SQQ is none self-awareness (with left beef) and you have to look at what he does and not what he says, it becomes clear that he has always cared for Binghe.

#ask answered #gahhhh i feel so self conscious writing about this book #other people are so much more well-versed and clever than me #truly the most intimidating MXTX fandom segment

[ride-a-dromedary]

I have no base for this, but Halsin seems like the type who would settle in the middle of the group with fruits (that he likely foraged) and little wooden bowl in tow and just start cutting them unprompted and offering them to everyone else.

#BG3 Musing #Halsin #Halsin Posting #i cannot get over him telling shadowheart he would feed her and carry around her bowl if she were a goldfish #you know what i'm talking about right - like the little paring knife cuts them in his hands #at first it just looks like he's doing it for himself but like halsin just eats things sans cutting them lbh #it's a clever and nonchalant way for him to share because others are more likely to take small pieces than like a whole apple yk? #we should all benefit from the bounty we are provided every day and all that #and eventually near everyone just starts...taking it from him and he smiles and continues #i think my other basis for this is halsin just doesn't like seeing people suffer - whether that be neglecting their basic needs #(because he neglects his own self enough lmao but lemme not neglect my friends though they're important) #or isolating themselves or what and it stems from his desire of just wanting to help #and feels absolutely no offense if they brush him off #like okay but it'll still be here if you want it later ^_^ #that's also why i am a sucker for the 'halsin offers to let astarion drink from him' trope in fics #because it goes along with the 'i don't want you to suffer and if i can help i will' even though as a druid #technically your existence is very dodgy to me (but halsin is just a nice person! that's really the long and short of it) #but like obviously disapproves if you do it without permission lol

[highfantasy-soul]

I think what people are missing when they say "The girls took all the powerful moments from the guys!!" or "Egwene would never have been able to stand up to Ishy for even a moment!" is that...the women are never standing alone when they do their incredible acts.

I think even book readers forget the massive buff being near other ta'veren gives the characters in the books and the power of working in a team.

In the season 1 finale, unlike Rand in the books, Egwene doesn't demolish a whole army of trollocs alone, nor does Nynaeve, nor do any of the other women there. Egwene and Nynaeve don't even cast any of the attack weaves at all. They are linked and Amalisa - a Tower trained individual - uses the collective power of all the women standing there to demolish the battlefield.

in the season 2 finale, they set it up all the way back in episode 1: "Standing alone, a shield only covers part of you, the rest is exposed. But standing together, our shields cover each other and nothing can touch us."

When Egwene stands up to Ishamael, she's not attacking him. She's making a shield. And she's not doing it alone. Mat and Rand are there too, two more powerful ta'veren converging in the Pattern with her, with two more on the way.

It's amazing how quickly book readers forget the plot convenience power of ta'veren Robert Jordan very purposely wrote into the story!

In the final confrontations of both seasons, Rand IS the one who strikes the final blow - he's the one who has to mentally 'defeat' Ishamael. It's Rand's decisions that determine the outcome in both - not Egwene's opinions on the matter, not Nynaeve's. The idea that a random mass attack is a more impactful character moment than overcoming the temptation of Ishy's promise of a perfect world for Rand to live in, that Rand declaring firmly and to Ishy's face that he will never join the shadow never stop fighting for the Light, is just ridiculous.

None of Rand's actually impactful, story-defining moments are given to 'the girls'. The show is not 'pushing Rand down so the women can be made more powerful'. If that's what you think, I'd take a look at what you think is 'powerful' and then take a look at the actual story Robert Jordan wrote and what he had to say about what wins the battle in the end. Was it sheer, raw power that won the conflict or was it strength of self (internally knowing who you are and not caving on your morals for power or influence or glory), community, and compassion?

Yeah, Rand is the character with the most raw power - but that's not why he wins battles and I think his big power moments will mean so much more in the show now that we've seen WHO HE IS and WHY he's using that power.

This isn't to say the explosions of power that Nynaeve and Egwene get aren't meaningful - I think the way the show has altered them to be about community support makes that act so much more powerful than a single character floating above the battlefield and demolishing it all on their own.

So in conclusion, I don't think the criticisms that "Rafe hates men and is giving all Rand's important stuff to the women!!" are accurate in the slightest.

#wheel of time #wot on prime #wot show spoilers #its so frustrating to see people angry that Rand isn't their self-insert OP Mary Sue #which I don't think he really was in the books #i think that RJ used those power ups to sneak in the real point - Rand's strength of character rather than his strength in the power #the wot community's obsession with power levels will never not frustrate me #like ppl upset that Moggy caught Lanfear in a web #the power isn't a sledgehammer!!!! #if you prepare and are clever with it then ppl with less power can totally get the advantage on those with more raw power!! #RJ's magic system isn't made for people to beat action figures together and the 'stronger' one always wins so maybe stop trying to apply #that logic to everything in the show

[oatbugs]

Jack Marsh (2005), Friendship Otherwise - Toward a Levinasian Description of Personal Friendship

#saw carnation lily lily rose by john singer seargent irl today. it was basically at my doorstep all along idk why i never went to see it #it was placed at a corner in the gallery. me and my friend sat down and sketched the paintings of beautiful naked people quite badly. paper #provided by tate britain. she told me about how she couldnt look her boyfriend in the face after a harrowing film about war. when i say the #interview was informal i mean the person who was supposed to be my boss told me let me get you a cider and then he said after #50 years of life he knows people are inherently good and it only takes a little bit of kindness to save this world. he said he tricked #his wife into keeping the baby and then he said he quit his job at a US bank to help people find meaning and in it #he would have liked to find meaning. instead he started climbing with his friends. he said he chews his cigarettes because its a habit from #when he had to hide things from people. the entire time i felt uncomfortable and incredibly enlightened. this is my friends mentor. she has #his pattern of pauses and expletive and penchant for ends-justify-means attitude. i do think im not very clever #but maybe one day i will love you enough to make up for it. i wrote code i dont understand staring at the final error i thought about how #we both thought of how when we're too old to remember the voices of our friends we would like to stand in the pathway of the LHC beam pipe #cut it open and eat light in the freezing cold vacuum (kills you long before radiation will) the invisible puncture wound unfolding dna #back to the start larger than you ever were. you go to heaven once youve been to hell. my friend is in my bed #practicing calculations of eigenvectors by hand and she is uninterested in a visual proof you are uninterested in incompetence #we catch a train this is your kind of burden you tragic hero wincing at that word you only do this because you have to. im the only one #who can. i am a coward in this for the fucking poetry. the visual proofs. the pretty numbers. an architect who was horrible at maths wanted #to be a philosopher and accidentally ended up neck in deep in 70th Error On Visual Studio Code i want to kiss your eyes before we say #goodbye we both know there is no love in the way there should be. I still have your dress in my wardrobe. i hope you make art. #you think im alright head-wise i think you fucking hate me i think ill never be so clever you want me to tell you my idea? #if you wanted more of this world i would have liked to kiss you harder. we cant both be like this. im sorry i cant be with you the whole wa #the love is gone if you have to ask it. his breath catches his eyes feel stiff it is -1.9 kelvin he is near the beam pipe i miss holding #his hand i miss her singing voice i miss his hair and i found the antonym of pain thank you for carrying me home.

[volivolition]

suggestion do you have... any wants? like obviously you do but like? suggestion my guy my ourple boy. both the easiest and hardest to write. you need a skill to say something to move conversation along but it doesn't fit any skill in particular? about 80% of the time you can have suggestion say it and it will make sense. but like actually characterizing him... how do i define you dude... what makes your character tick... urgh. i dont get you yet. im trying to understand but you are difficult.

#chemi chats #there are some skills that i just dont understand yet and that just means i have to work on their character study chapter #im reading his bio and i think suggestion is a good manipulator and it's instinctive and he tries not to feel bad about it? #he's clever!! charming!! friends with savvy and drama. planting seeds in the mind and coaxing them to grow towards him like he's the sun. #a crude oil reservoir lying beneath a carefully laid flower bed. taps into the roots. the plants don't know any better than to drink. #he's great at sensing what makes people tick and uses that to his advantage. he needs goals to look forward to so he knows how to best #pull the strings to get them there. otherwise he's a bit aimless. he likes being useful. and since influencing others is helpful #he just keeps doing it? because it's what he's good at. and he tries to convince himself its fun and cool and just cuz hes charming and #it's his role as a skill and manipulation isnt thaaaat bad because it's helpful to them after all... but he does feel bad sometimes. #oh im listening to his voice lines and i just got to ''brother you should have put me in front of a firing squad'' and im sad about him now #but what do you want for short term little guy?? probably for people to like him. he likes chatting with people. i bet he'd like genuine #conversations with no strings attached but there's always some part of him filing information and tidbits away that he can't turn off #subconsciously figuring out things he can hold over them or how he can nudge them into thinking someth-/wait.../ no. no he's just talking. #he's /supposed/ to just be talking stop analyzing them stop falling back into that just have a normal conversation!! but he can't help it.. #hm. this is all really helpful for his chapter. he and empathy are very alike but also different. very interesting... #task: swept up #okay good talk everyone i think i understand him a little better now lmao?? still gotta figure him out some more hes not fully there but ye #also i think he goes by whatever pronoun you think he'd use. just ''oh what do /you/ think i am hm?? what /would/ i use; do you think?? :)' #funny fella. i love you.

[goldkirk]

I opened Pinterest for the first time in months.

That made me realize a lot about how bad I was actually doing and how much of a Waffle House Index use of Pinterest is for adult me, apparently.

I hadn’t realized it had grown that foundational to me in a healthy-brain-exercise-and-hobby-joy way. Nice to know moving forward! It’s another sign I can keep track of and use to spot correlation/indicator patterns earlier my behavior.

I love this kind of thing, it makes me so excited!

#personal data hacking is my passion #someday I’ll tell a story about the most notable times I tracked things or hacked my own mental processes from childhood to now #including the fear of spiders and bed wetting and behavior changes and posture and heart rate and cursive and putting kitchen items and #trash away as soon as I’m finished using them instead of never ever or ages and ages later #I’m so proud of that #you have to give it time and still commit. chaining thoughts and routines and behaviors really works #we are not separate brains and bodies and external environments #anyway I’m gonna go haha I used up he last of my energy burst on Discord and here and I need to go rest and lie on the floor and probly doze #love you all be back soon bye mwah! #add to journal #trauma evolution #my Waffle House index #this is going to be a fun new tag I’m so going to have fun with this and I bet it’ll be a helpful example reference for other people too #more than just for future me! #so excited so proud of myself so happy so grateful for hope about me really trusting that my ability and my behavior and my performance #are able to and going to yes keep getting better #long many-milestone path-journeys of potential #like when I was a little 6-7 year old kid-team athlete looking ahead at a concept of a future with me over time getting #stronger and cleverer and faster and slicker and calmer and even happier and more and more capable and able to accomplish! #a gift. all this time I didn’t think I’d have and have been living anyway is such a gift. #knowing that I truly have future time to grow and explore and change and improve in even though I still can’t FEEL or IMAGINE that future #time yet. also a gift. #the time I will one day realize I can imagine a future and imagine myself alive? will be a gift. #breath is a gift. experiencing life is a gift. other life is a gift. rhythm is a gift. motion is a gift. awake is a gift. color is a gift. #such a great expanse. all of it new. all of it eternal. all of it me. all of it nothing I’ve ever known before. all of it all of it #all of it. gifts. #gonna go have floor time now. this would be such a nice time to re-re-regain my ability to cry! #mwah I love you future me. take care of your hand and thank u for writing all this down 💛 #hey little star whatcha gonna queue? #my poetry

[ssreeder]

#why do you hate me??? #why do you not only take my word count and rub my face in it #BUT YOU USE MY BLORBOS TO DO IT?!?! #I hate you thotty #I made that gif just for you #because you MISCALCULATED #I like hawks 1000x more than Bakugo. even though I do still love me some Bakugo haha #I have a thing for angry flawed characters ok?! #*hugs Bakugo and jet* #except hawks he isn’t flawed he’s perfect sucks to suck everyone who isn’t hawks #ANYWAYYYYY I think I’ll be at a million in like 3 chapters ugh #UGH #UEGFUWBUCIQJEBXHA *rubs face of phone screen* #if I was being really clever I could have put a lemillion gif instead #GET IT #LE MILLION!!?? haha no you don’t because you’ve never watch MHA #so Ha thotty HAAA #I’m sorry I’m such a bully no wonder I like Bakugo and jet ugh haha #zukos not far off from being a bully either though haha #kicking in peoples doors searching for the avatar telling Jee and his crew he doesn’t give a fuck about their safety haha #ok sorry I’m done #tag ramble over #enjoy my gif thotty IT IS JUST FOR YOUUUUU #LIAB #thotty tag #thotty with a bitty #thotty I love you obviously which is why I’m mean to you #MWAH MWAH

[jasontoddenthusiastt]

I always smh at people who dub Jason as “whiny” “and therefore ooc” in tt 29. If you died and all everyone did was taint your legacy, and not a single person remembered you fondly or deemed you worthy of commemoration after your death, wouldn’t you be a bit upset too?

#the only thing that was ooc about Jason there was all the shit talking the other characters were doing about him. #and some of the things Jason said about himself because he left whatever small amounts of self esteem he actually had back in his grave #he was very cooperative shy and clever with the titans in the 80s #it’s not enough that his own father told him to his face that he is a product of his own problems #everyone he knew and had good working relationships with just completely shut him out and turned their backs #even if you don’t mean it/it’s more complicated than that #if someone you knew died but now you got a chance to tell them what you couldn’t wouldn’t you at least muster up an ‘I’m glad you’re back’ #apparently not lol #kelseethe #it’s the fact that people label him *being upset* as ‘illogical’ or stupid that irks me #I was talking with a mutual about this too but #if a female character did exactly his actions #I don’t think people would be so quick to stomp all over her and call her weak/overbearing/hysterical #or to give her the dismissive patronizing eye roll treatment #even though they deemed her actions to be exaggerated/misdirected/an outburst by any standard #they’d probably say she’s written like an actual human and that she resonates with a lot of people haha #he evaded all their security systems and effectively took down anyone who was present in the tower. #I’d say his skills are pretty in-character. #the idea that men can get emotional is just not palatable to you people just admit it #if it isn’t silent brooding stoic manpain you people will projectile vomit all over it and call it ‘bad characterization’

[clonehub]

part of the tragedy of the clones is the accelerated aging. its inseparable from their creation and their duty. it doesnt just artificially shorten their lives, it concentrates the feelings they have about themselves and their ability to leave/stay and to fight or not fight, because they have half as much time to do anything. if their bodies break down at an alarming speed, theyd probably hate to have to do it outside of what's familiar to them, even if what's familiar is an active violation of their rights. its an artificial life constraint as well as an artificial choice constraint. if you had all the time in the world, you'd probably worry less about why you were put into the galaxy, what your "purpose" was. existentialism is less daunting when you can exist perpetually. not so for clones.

#ch posts #i get uh #a little bit annoyed? I guess? sometimes when people go out of their way to find workarounds around the aging #as much as Id love for the clones to live long lives #think about it within the context of the story #and its like. ''they could have lived a normal lifespan'' and palpatine would have had them longer #they would have just kept fighting for the empire #or even been artifically culled bc theyre still more expensive than conscripts #im not against all workarounds #but me personally if someone's gonna change it id like it to be. not ''clever'' thats not the right word. #uh. #a struggle? #something thats gotta be fought for yknow #not like an easy solution/fix to it #star wars #the clone wars #tbh even if canon changed where there was a one two fix to the clones' lifespans i dont think id change my OCs stories lol

[itspileofgoodthings]

So sorry if this is bothering you but so curious as well... why do you hate Guts?

Thanks for your time ❤

you’re not bothering me!

I think the simplest way to answer this is with one of Olivia’s own lyrics from pretty isn’t pretty when she sings “none of it matters and none of it ends” because. That is kind of her whole ethos about how life works. She believes that! And so her work, to me, is profoundly cynical and self-absorbed because it can’t point to anything bigger (none of it matters) so it revolves purely around her own feelings. It won’t ever situate itself in a wider picture. And I love whining in a song tbh. I love when an artist captures those uglier emotions —the discontent, the restlessness, the irritation, the blandness and staleness of it all and the railing against it—because those are all part of the human experience. I am continually shocked—it is shoCKING—by how many negative emotions I can and do experience over and over again. But it is thankfully against the backdrop of reality. My bad moods are something that can be so unpleasant to feel and so ugly to witness—I wrestle with how ugly and small my suffering is—but there is a way in which, all discourse about the validity of any and all of my feelings accounted for, those aren’t real. Just symptoms of my suffering and sometimes my convalescence (lol, love a symptom of convalescence) but reality is still always so much realer. It’s always ready to break in a million times a day; the beauty and sturdiness of reality, the texture of existence, as Flannery O’Connor once said, is always there and with enough time (and with patience and help and love) I can get back to contact with it. Not just the state of my own mind full of bitterness and worry and pain, endlessly stewing in its own unhappiness.

I am not good at that, it takes a lot to get me there. But I guess my point is—to circle back—Olivia’s music doesn’t try and doesn’t want to. Its scope is so narrow, every song no matter how pleasing at first eventually sours (lololololol) because it’s JUST rooted in her own experience, generally her own suffering. And there’s no sharpness or cleverness in the world (she can be both sharp and clever!) that can hide that lack of range. So you hear a song once—for me, it was brutal—-and you’re like YEAH. I recognize this kind of whininess because I’ve felt it before. There is something true to it! But the more she writes the more you watch her do it over and over again (sonically, too, she loves to speak-talk and tbh they’re just sub-par remixes of brutal) the more you start to be like “oh, is that it? We’re not going anywhere with this? There’s no turn or catharsis or bridge or anything that lifts us out of this even for a second?” and it’s just —blegh.

And the thing is there doesn’t even have to be, like, some triumphant girlboss victory where she feels better. I’m not saying her songs are bad because they’re sad and depressing. It’s that they establish no outside contact with reality. They are, for all her clever little film-noir references or whatever, only ever self-referential. And that gets old so fast no matter who is talking.

#yes of course I contrast her with Taylor #Taylor can be beautifully petty and restless and sad and insecure and her songs are never just about her #They are always situated in a broader picture of reality. They go down to the roots of things. Of humanity and love and the human condition #and it’s just. It’s so much bigger. It is not stifling #and that’s the staying power and that’s the inherent hopefulness she has and that’s her desire to know the truth and speak the truth #Even when she’s getting it wrong it’s all still there #anyway it’s funny because Taylor gets accused of what Olivia actually is doing so much more than Olivia #people love to pretend that Taylor is a wallower and self-indulgent #and yes there’s a very human humanity to the expression of her emotions. There IS brattiness there is anger #but the core is so good that those things become what they are —only the endearing and funny trappings of her expression #never the heart #it’s why Taylor wears so well and also why sometimes she is jarring on first listen. You can just hear the dissonance (for me too) #But it’s like that one tweet said. Doesn’t matter if you like a taylor song on first listen. You WILL eventually #and it’s so true. And that’s the quality drawing you in #Olivia (and much of gen z tbh) is kind of the opposite: the humanity is in the trappings #She’s fairly easy to listen to and like ….. at first #the humanity and cleverness and beauty such as they are are on the surface #there’s a deceptive ease and an openness that doesn’t actually lead you anywhere #It leaves you empty because it’s just all kind of built on the fumes of a bad mood tbh #turning off reblogs lol #Anyway thank you for asking and giving me this opportunity to speak #all opinions are mine and that’s what they are. If anyone feels differently more power to you. Go forth and enjoy guts #Just putting all my caveats here

[rxttenfish]

hi !!! sending this on anon because i am rather nervous all things considered <:3 (i am lying to you, i have not considered 'all things'.) one monster prom fan to another (can we be compared using such broad terminology ? i feel as if i am domesticated compared to you... [compliment, or at the very least not inherently negative]) , i wanted to thank you SO SO SO VERY MUCH for giving miranda so much love and thought and mulling her over in your mind in such a ... refreshing way

i also really really really like miri , but i can only aspire to have your level of dedication . it feels almost like we are of totally different worlds... !!!!!

thank you for bringing in real world biology too :3 i absolutely adore your design for her so much (this is most likely not proper grammar, but it is very late and i am very cold and so i will hope with all my heart you will excuse this mistake. one of many, i should assume) - though !!!! i do have a question if that is alright ?????

i cant say that a marine macropredator of a significantly vibrant pink really strikes me as advantageous colouring - does the abyssal environment that you say the merfolk live in negate the need for camouflage and such ????? i apologise for sounding passive aggressive !!!! i am merely asking a question. cocking my head to the side if you will

additionally, i would like to ask something foolish. how do they acquire food? i dont want to say 'hunt', because that might seem insulting. historically were they built for stalking, or high speed chases, or...???? please, talk 'nerdy to me' as they say !!! <- in an entirely normal way befitting two strangers of course.

you know, i would have expected to hit the ask word limit by now. but it seems i have not. yippee !!!!

with my extra space, i shall add this: I ABSOLUTELY ADORE THE WAY YOIU WRITE MIRI . GOOD LOOOOOORD IT IS AMAZING HAVIJNG SOMEOENE WHO KNOWS WHAT THEYRE DOING IWIITH HER thank yoiu for making her at least moderately intelligent. i feel blessed <- is this all too harsh sounding???? im a little new to all this letter/ask-writing thing <:3

IN ANY CASE !!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOIU SO VERY MUCH. AGAIN. drops this and scuttles away

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/761693443676045363/1183251697129226270/ordered3.png

also i believe you can indeed tell, but i drew that in ms paint with my finger .. sorry that it looks like poop <:3

(moving the image out of the link just in case it breaks-)

AAAAAA THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! this looks so WONDERFUL i love the way that you've shaped her head and how you've captured how Chunky it is... i know its one of the things people have the hardest time drawing with her so its just all the more impressive how well youve managed to capture her!!!

i also love the little doodles eeeee..... please feel free to toss all ocs at miri, its enrichment for her <3 ironically gentle chewing/biting is a Play and Bonding thing for merfolk so she shall happily Bites Bites Bites back-

(also i LOVE her smile!!! you arent anthropomorphizing in the slightest for that - miri often does have very human expressions in a way that's odd for a merfolk, because she effectively got imprinted during her time spent inland... and its politically useful if you smile and match expressions with the people you're trying to work with anyways)

ill also go ahead and answer your questions because i can! very easily clarify on them!

the color: actually, being bright red and pink is actually very common for deep sea animals, due to the way light works at depth! its why i decided miranda was abyssal, because that felt like the most natural way to explain why she's pink, since it's such an uncommon color in nature.

basically, different colors of light have different lengths! red is the shortest wavelength of light, and blue is the longest. water might be clear, but there's a lot of water in the ocean, and the more water you add, the more it filters out light - which is why the bottom of a pool might be dark and shady, but if you hold a little of the water in your hands there's no shade. the ocean is a lot deeper than a pool, and so it gets darker as you go down, but because it's also clear, it doesn't filter out all that light at the same rate.

red, being the shortest wavelength of light, gets filtered out first, so red often gets quickly darker the deeper down you go, until it's completely black! camouflage is dependent on the environment, so their color and brightness has to match the background, but it also depends on the light that's hitting the animal. it's why fawns have dappled spots, or animals might have black stripes, so they can mimic the light of their environment. and when your environment has no red light, well... red's a pretty good color to be!

because of this, a lot of animals in the deep sea can't actually see red either, which is doubly the reason why you might want to be red! think of it like tigers, and how ungulates often can't see their orange, making them look just about the same color as the foliage around them when they're hunting! miranda might stick out on land, but that's just because we aren't seeing her in the environment she's made for, where she blends in with everything else around her as much as a pure black animal.

(it's also why her bioluminescence is blue - blue is the longest wavelength of light, and the one most animals can see at that depth. if she lights up, then she wants to be seen, and she can even alter her silhouette to appear larger or smaller or breaking it up into multiple shapes if she needs to. it's why her tapetum lucidum is blue when light's shone on it, because there is blue light to be seen at depth, it's just very dim!)

(this is also why giant squid are bright red, and why the stoplight loosejaw fish is so special! the latter actually produces its own red light, and can see red light, which means that it has a secret light that won't reveal where it is but will reveal to it where its prey is!)

food: this is something that depends a lot, because there are actually multiple different species of merfolk, which is mostly my fault because i don't always feel like i communicate this the best. they're all slightly different in how they evolved to capture prey, with abyssals in particular being fuckoff huge ambush predators that attack from below, and others being shallower-water hunters or more adapted for smaller, faster prey - but they all evolved from an ancestor with a fairly consistent prey-capture method.

in short, all merfolk are ancestrally evolved to hunt whales and other large prey items, with all the extant species still holding at least a degree of this. primarily, they were ambush predators who were good at getting in close to their prey before a sudden burst of speed. they would work together in close-knit groups (one of the big pressures for their increasing socialization and larger brains, to coordinate such groups) to all mob a single prey item at once, hitting with force to cause sudden trauma, and then using their claws, double-thumbs, back feet, and mouths to hold onto their prey and refuse to be dislodged. they'd repeatedly claw and use their strong bites and massive heads to rip deeply into their prey, causing further massive trauma and shock, and if that failed, bleeding their prey to death.

think of it like the raptor prey restraint model, just further taking advantage of the fact that they were underwater, where no one else has hands that could potentially rip them off. being smaller and somewhat less-optimized for marine life compared to things like sharks and whales and large fish worked for them, because they had a novel adaptation that allowed them to take advantage of things no one else could, and the numbers to make up for it. this is, likewise, why they never lost their hands and fully developed flippers, instead making their limbs as flipper-like as possible to make up for it.

then as time went on and certain populations became separated from each other, they adapted for slightly different niches, but all remain fairly closely related to each other as a genus.

in the modern day, most merfolk don't really "hunt" for all of their meals, at least not in the same way that we might think. don't get me wrong, they still absolutely hunt and it's a larger part of their lives than it is for most humans, but they have options.

mostly, the merfolk theory for their relationship with nature is to invite it in. this is not to say they aren't controlling and pruning it, but they do live underwater, and it's far harder to keep animals out than it is on land, so merfolk accepted it and worked with it. they'll work to promote growth around their buildings and where they live, fostering the growth of sea grass and algae and coral and other sessile animals, encouraging them to set down and grow in these areas, and they'll then let more wild animals move in, further encouraged by these natural sources of food and shelter, on top of merfolk working even further to encourage them in. they serve as a functional cleanup crew for the merfolk in these settlements, being allowed to eat anything that merfolk might drop or go to waste, and even moreso might be purposefully fed at times, or have specific homes for them built. merfolk will keep encouraging them and taking care of them until they become a biorich hotspot, creating unique oasises for wildlife to live alongside merfolk.

however, this isn't just a free-for-all, persay. merfolk will also purposefully prune these populations and control how they form, often removing "problem" animals and encouraging certain behaviors which makes it easier for these populations to live alongside merfolk, not viewing them as a threat, but also not viewing them as an opportunity either. they will directly shape how these areas grow and cultivate them on a physical level, often using them as an easy shortcut to literally grow their settlements and buildings. but they will also harvest from these populations and selectively breed them, until their cities and towns act as massive public gardens full of food to be caught, picked, and eaten at any time

as there are also a lot of (very politically powerful) nomadic groups, they also do this, albeit not always so directly. they'll have specific shoals or "runs" of fish that they will follow behind and take care of, managing as they move through the ocean in accordance with the seasons. this is where the whales still factor in, because the nomadic groups will also take care of the whales, purposefully keeping an eye on their pods and taking care of them and, when the time comes, being choosy and particular in which whale they select at any given time to be hunted, harvested, and eaten.

(there's also the way in which food is distributed and managed throughout the merkingdom, since some food is indeed shipped and moved throughout the different areas, but that's a different story for another time and i've talked enough)

BUT!!!! thank you so much and thank you for enjoying all of this that ive been making with miri, and thank you for giving me an excuse to talk more about her <3

#all the care guide says is 'biomass' #asks #Anonymous #Monster Prom #Miranda Vanderbilt #i am wholeheartedly a ''miri is smart'' person because i mean. cmon. #of course shes smarter than she looks you dont just trip your way into knowing how to play people like a fiddle #manipulation requires cleverness!! knowing how to use it well just comes with the station she has #(honestly to the point where i think her playing stupid is just. well. that! playing stupid!) #(and sometimes just Playing too tbh. she seems to enjoy just. being silly. more than fully fitting into her role) #(which from what i can tell she DOES fit into her role VERY well) #(and absolutely means that yeah no miri acting the way she does isnt just because she has no idea how to be any other way) #(and is instead a deliberate choice that she's making for some other reason) #(which continues to frustrate me because CANON STOP MOVING TOWARDS ''NO SHES JUST STUPID'')

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: December 22

"Until Olympius Returns" by The Mountain Goats

#song of the day #I enjoy this song for itself--classic Mountain Goats sharp and clever and fun for me to sing #but at the risk of sounding insufferable: this is the song of the day because I like how John Darnielle talks about it #there's an interview (he did it for Bandcamp but I read the quote on genius.com) and he says how the song has a lot of potential parallels #how it could make an excellent metaphor for any number of things--but when he was writing it he was only thinking of the literal story #he'd read a history of Olympius and his followers and then he turned that history into a song and then after people were putting Meanings o #and he doesn't ever say people are wrong for seeing all these parallels and meanings he didn't intentionally write in #what I like is that he says 'I think one of my strengths is that my faith in stories is so strong #that I don’t need to make them be more than what they are. I trust them to do that by themselves' #I like that so much #it's something I struggle with in my own stories sometimes. I get caught up in wanting the audience to know all my themes and shit #and I forget that while themes and narrative structure are a big part of making a good story it still has to be a good story first #I need to make sure it stands on its own first and let people find what they need in it after #and I need to not worry about having somehow done something wrong if what they find isn't what I meant to plant for them

[the-empress-7]

#thank God for people more clever than me

[anghraine]

I’ve talked about my intense dislike of the “Elizabeth’s feelings for Darcy consist entirely of dispassionate respect for his moral character and faithfulness and landscaping choices” interpretation. However, closely related:

“Elizabeth comes to respect/love Darcy because he’s principled and responsible and loyal. Of course he can’t keep up with her intellectually, but he’s steady and reliable, and P&P highlights the value of that in a husband over wit.”

perish

#this is more of an academia take than a fandom take but it's been annoying me since i got into austen lit-crit in high school #there's one essay that concedes that darcy's dry responses to caroline are actually pretty witty in their way #and that this suggests he and elizabeth speak the same language #...but this is in a footnote and the whole thing about how darcy can't /really/ match her is in the main body so >_< #it's actually a pretty common take though—or at least used to be #austen: *switches to omniscient narration to tell us that bingley is intellectually fine 'but darcy was clever'* #critics: suddenly i can't read #anghraine babbles #austen fanwank #austen blogging #lady anne blogging #fitzwilliam darcy #elizabeth bennet #otp of otps #anghraine rants #honestly i think some people find p&p disturbing because it's neither vacuous nor didactic #austen gives elizabeth a love interest who is difficult and complicated but also noble and responsible and principled and loving yes #...but also young and smart and hot and rich and powerful bc elizabeth gets it ALL #i mean i do think that's a big part of the 'point' in having darcy be so extra #elizabeth compromises nothing and gets everything

[echthr0s]

been tryna ignore it but I am so goddamn annoyed at "human" as the default adjective for every kind/lovely/awe-inspiring/whatever thing y'all like about people/characters/concepts/whatever. frex, posts with the framework of "I love it when characters do the thing, it's just so beautiful and human" like give me a break

and i tried to ignore it bc this is very much a me-as-nonhuman problem as opposed to there being something actually wrong with that descriptor but that's a poor reason to ignore being aggravated, tbh. like yeah it's a me problem but 1) it's not just a me problem bc other nonhumans complain about it all the time and 2) it's literally fine for me to care about something that other people don't lmao

it's just so anthropocentric in such a casual way, a casual and unexamined equation of [goodness or sociability or intelligence or complexity of mind or complexity of emotion or capacity of compassion] with being human. that doesn't even make any sense but it's so ingrained in speech (in English, anyway) that if I tried to explain my frustration to anyone that wasn't also nonhuman, or alterhuman, or aware of this in some other way, they'd be like "lmao you're kidding right. you're making up something to be mad at" yeah well I Am Not

just tired of reading posts and bein like "yeah!! that's so good, I love when that happens" and then gettin to the "it's so ~human~" part and goin "well fuck me then" and scrolling on instead of happily reblogging. sure I could just reblog it anyway but now I don't fkn want to :)

#possibly-necessary preemptive strike: hi! if you don't like this post i don't care to hear about it! have a lovely day :) #i am not a monster seeking a way to be human. i am not a creation that wants to be seen as a real boy. #i am simply a monster. a creation. an entity. nothing about me is seeking humanity or aligned with humanity. #except in the purely taxonomic sense of my current biological configuration. but ain't none of y'all biologists. #humans are cool and all but no more cool than a robin or a whale or a wolf or an android or a xenomorph or an elf or a tree. or whatever. #when people show a particular cleverness or resourcefulness do people go ''that's so arachnid'' or ''that's so cephalopod'' #or ''that's so vulpine'' or ''that's so corvid' or ''that's so fungal''' #actually they'd be far more likely to look at one of those species and talk about how much like a human they are #barf. #anyway all the qualities about me that people enjoy are nonhuman qualities not human ones thank you good day