#inscrutable teenager

[amniforn]

The best films of 2022 in a year of cinematic delights

The best films of 2022 in a year of cinematic delights

Even as the film industry continues to recover from the debilitating effects of the pandemic, the film’s continuing story is not a loss of quality. It’s been a year filled with cinematic delights from all parts of the world, with rookie filmmakers doing everything they can to shock audiences and old masters delving into their darkest memories for indelible works of memory. I remain concerned that…

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#Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic #armageddon time #Australian legend Miller #best movies #brain teaser #Chinese food #cinematic delights #Eggers&039; Crazy Adventure #eternal girl #Film Industry #george miller #horror movie #hotel room #Idris Elba #inscrutable teenager #James Gray #Jane Schoenbrun #Jordan Pele #Kogonada&039;s Silent Storytelling Sensibility #large studio #Lydia Tar #madmax #major hollywood studios #memories of his cinema #meteoric beginnings #most spectacular view #motley group of movie industry junk #movies #new life #newbie filmmakers

[sol1loqu1st]

the early linkin park demos of iconic songs with the unfinished lyrics make me fucking insane man

#it starts with one / and multiplies til you can taste the sun / and burned by the sky you try to take it from / #but if it falls there's no place to run / crumbling down it's so unreal / they're dealing you in to determine your end / #and sending you back again the places you've been / and bending your will til it breaks you within #and still they fill their eyes / with the twilight through the skylight / and the highlights on a frame of steel #see the brightness of your likeness / as i write this on a pad with the way i feel / hear the screaming in my dreaming / #as it's seeming that you've played your part / like you're heartless take apart this / in the darkness but i know that i tried so hard #and got so far but in the end it doesn't even matter #<- in the end demo first verse #it's completely fucking inscrutable and reads like lyrics i would've scribbled down as a teenager and it rules so hard

[oreganocactus]

dungeon meshi is the ultimate manga for a lot of reasons but some of my top favorites are that

- never any “omg pervert!!!” jokes that are so insanely prevalent in fantasy manga for some reason

- only “ship tease” is between falin and marcille

- completely and well fleshed out female characters who have their own motivations character and arcs just as equally as the male characters

- catgirl who actually is a cat girl (inscrutable, a little rude, pushes shit off tables, a little unsettling) and not just a cutesy moe girl with cat ears

- ultimate autism protagonist (thank you laois for your service)

- “this elf is actually 5000 years old but looks like a young adult/teenager for some reason” but ryoko kui actually pulled off making it heartbreaking and a significant part of marcille’s character

- chilchuk divorce

- the most insane worldbuilding ever

- only fanservice is senshi #SENSHISWEEP

#dungeon meshi

[just-be-a-rock]

The world of Gideon the Ninth is an inscrutable mystery. You expect it to behave like most fictional worlds you know and unfold before your eyes but instead it remains stubbornly opaque, revealing itself and its rules to you only indirectly.

The world of Harrow the Ninth is a cage. It is isolated rooms and corridors you wander through in a daze, home to a dysfunctional family dynamic from which there is no escape. It is your own mind shielding you from pain by rewriting your memories. It is a study in which you wait, alone, for the person you love and trust most in the world to find you and hold you close.

The world of Nona the Ninth is a dying teenage girl, and she loves you.

#im assuming that in AtN the world will bite and chomp and kill and i for one support her #The Locked Tomb #Gideon the Ninth #Harrow the Ninth #Nona the Ninth

[gallusrostromegalus]

So how much are you willing to talk about Ulquiorra?

I will talk so much about him. There are so many things wrong with that man, but to make a brief list of his most notable features:

He's dumb as hell.

I say that with tremendous sympathetic affection. Ulquiorra barely thinks. It's easy for him to do nothing and go nowhere. He eats chocolate in the middle of the night in the dark. When he gets access to a garden, he often just stands around in it. He's often waiting for things to happen.

He just LOOKS smart compared to nearly everyone else in the fic because he doesn't have much to say, so he's not constantly opening his mouth to jam his foot down it.

Consequently, Ulquiorra starts off having little to no initiative of his own. Stuff just happens to him. Some of that is because he is colossally depressed, but he's depressed because the idea that he has control over his circumstances has straight up not occured to him.

The first person he meets that shows him that "You can just do whatever you want, forever" and the boundless joy it is to be a creature of free will is, unfortunately, Aizen. And Aizen left off the key corollary "-EVERYONE is allowed to do whatever they want, forever. We are all equal in God's dead, empty eye sockets."

So Ulquiorra wanders around trying out this "doing stuff" thing without any concept of ethics.

I realize I am infantilizing this character, but I am doing so in a twilight zone "hey, wouldn't it be fucked up to watch a fully anatomically functional person who is able to speak and blow stuff up with his mind go through the emotional development steps of a toddler?", because I think that's a fun high-concept premise to explore with him. Yeah, what if a toddler could speak articulately and also destroy you? How would he act? How does he feel, learning to have feelings?

It'd probably suck for him and everyone around him, and make him very easy to manipulate, for one thing.

So I don't think Ulquiorra is evil, because evil takes intent. He is dangerous to be in the general proximity of, though

Like a horse

lose

in a hospital!

I love that sketch as much as the next person but if an IRL horse got loose in a hospital it would be bedlam, but the horse would be mostly confused and probably willing to follow around the first person who looked like they knew what they were doing.

You know, like how Ulquiorra follows Aizen around because that's the first guy he's met who THINKS he knows what he's doing, and is good at convincing others he knows what he's doing!

So Ulquiorra's entire first character arc is being exposed to more and more people and realizing he does have control over his life, and that he can take actions, and that those actions have consequences.

Like being emotionally devastated by a teenage girl because he was an asshole to her and she's willing to scream at him about it.

Hm.

Consequences hurt.

He lives through the Las Noches arc, and decides to follow his own star!

He follows it right through a portal that was not meant for him and now he's sort of trapped in somewhere he's really, really, really, really, REALLY not supposed to be.

But it's a beautiful place

And nobody is forcing him to do anything.

And for a long time, he just stands out in the garden, waiting for something.

But then

Ulquiorra experiences a novel pair of emotions that he's recently learned from his new...

Orihime is too mad at him for him to call her a friend.

-but he did learn the names and therefore the experience of two new emotions from her: boredom, and it's natural remedy: curiosity.

So Ulquiorra's second character arc is him learning how to be himself without anyone telling him who he is and what he ought to be.

He's travelling up Maslow's hierarchy with the inscrutable but unstoppable instinctual drive of a salmon returning to its spawning ground.

This has lead to an important discovery on my part: Ulquiorra is terrific for comedy because he is the ULTIMATE straight man to everyone else's nonsense, because he's immune to nearly all nonsense.

He doesn't have societal taboos to be hung up on, nor any sense of what is "normal", so the sole thing he geta hung up on is a lack of internal consistency in others, meaning he can slip between straight man to the absurdist at the drop of a single scathing observation. Yet, he retains a sort of understated dignity that compels people to try to earn his respect.

Hence, I'm having fun turning him loose on the most absurd, internally inconsistent and frankly, insane batch of characters in the series:

The Royal Guard.

:)

#AEIWAM #An Elephant Is Warm And Mushy #bleach #bleach fanfic #ulquiorra cifer #Ulquiorra #mild spoilers

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

"ok so you know that infamously long serialized web story with a creator that the fandom at best is lukewarm towards, where in the climax a morally ambiguous teenaged girlboss with spider theming and mind control powers assembles an enormous army of powerful individuals and sacrifices potentially millions of them in order to defeat an existentially powerful being, and also large parts of the mid-late plot including the origin of that existentially powerfully being revolve around the lifecycle of pairbonded intergalactic superbeings of inscrutable motives"

"theres two of those actually"

#wormblr #parahumans #worm spoilers #worm liveblog #homestuck #vriska serket #taylor hebert #skitter

[nymm-of-night]

Marble Hornets is over. Alex Kralie is dead, Jay Merrick is dead, Brian Thomas is dead, and Tim Wright has exited stage left. Trapped in the shackles of parental obligation and the shifting hallways of a rotting mansion, Tim finds himself struggling to keep three teenage serial killers alive. Despite dwindling rations, incessant Nightcore, and the inscrutable demands of the Operator, he’s managed to carve out stability on the edge of nowhere—a stability that shatters when a familiar corpse takes a seat at their table.

Do you have fond memories of yesteryear's edgy teen fandoms? Did your parents forbid you from reading Jeff the Killer Quotevs because they thought they were a bad influence? Do you want to see ToTheArk be the worst foster parents on Earth? Are you enthused by the phrase "Slenderman's Costco Membership"?

If so, this fic may be for you! Slowcooked in the Marble Hornets fandom for ten years and garnished with a reduction of Monster Energy drinks and eyeliner, In Loco Parentis is a fun throwback to classic Slendermansion fanfiction. It's 100% finished, updates Mondays, and has more brooding 2013 yaoi AMV energy than you can shake a paddle at. Grab your favorite Nightcore Playlist (or the writer's mix) and enjoy!

#please read my fanfiction i worked on this for 1.5 years and it's going to get buried in /reader content in minutes #Creepypasta #Marble Hornets #Masky #Hoody #Tim Wright #Brian Thomas #jeff the killer #Ben Drowned #Eyeless Jack #Slenderman #Creepypasta Mansion

[wasabidottie]

Brothers Best Friend (Jschlatt)

prologue part one part two

A/n: this is my little attempt at something with multiple parts, lets see how it goes :)

High school was a maze of expectations, teenage dramas, and fleeting friendships. Amidst the chaos, one thing remained constant: the enduring friendship between Ted and Jschlatt. The two seniors had been inseparable since middle school, forging a bond that was as strong as it was tumultuous.

Ted, with his boyish charm and effortless charisma, was the star of the baseball team. He excelled at the sport, his name celebrated across the school as a home-run hitter. Schlatt, on the other hand, was the tough guy with a sharp wit and a penchant for trouble. He may not have been the star player, but his reputation as a wildcard kept everyone on their toes.

And then there was [Y/N], Ted's younger sister, a junior who had managed to navigate high school with a blend of grace and determination. She was the quiet observer, the one who saw through the chaos and captured its essence with her camera lens.

It was a sunny afternoon, the baseball diamond bathed in golden light, as [Y/N] found herself perched on the bleachers, camera in hand. Ted had roped her into documenting the team's latest game, a task she took on with grace, despite her mild protests. She watched as the team practiced their swings, focusing her lens on the players, each one hoping for their moment of glory.

Schlatt was unmistakable, standing in the batter's box with a cocky grin on his face, his bat resting on his shoulder. He exuded confidence, and it was clear why. His every swing sent the ball soaring through the air, a testament to his skill. The crowd erupted into cheers, and Schlatt couldn't have looked more pleased with himself.

But as the game progressed, Schlatt's cockiness began to grate on [Y/N]. He was loud, boisterous, and had an uncanny ability to turn every play into a spectacle. She watched as he taunted the opposing team, his trash talk relentless. Schlatt had always been a bit of an ass, and today was no exception.

As she continued to capture the game through her lens, [Y/N] couldn't help but feel irritated by Schlatt's antics. Ted had often warned her about his best friend's unpredictable nature, but seeing it firsthand was an entirely different experience. She sighed, adjusting the focus on her camera.

The game went on, the tension on the field rising with each inning. It was a close match, and Schlatt's determination to win was palpable. Yet, despite his bravado, he couldn't deny the skill of the opposing pitcher. Frustration mounted, and Schlatt's temper flared.

In a moment of sheer anger, he swung wildly at a pitch, missing it completely. A collective groan from the crowd and a shake of his head were all he offered in response. [Y/N] captured the moment, the disappointment etched across his face.

As the innings progressed, [Y/N] found herself focusing her lens more and more on Schlatt, the unpredictability of his emotions drawing her in. Behind the bravado and the bluster, there was something raw, something human that intrigued her.

It was then, in the midst of the game, that something unexpected happened. Schlatt caught her eye from the field, their gazes locking for a brief, charged moment. He looked almost vulnerable, a stark contrast to the tough exterior he usually projected.

A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his lips before he turned back to the game. And in that fleeting instant, as [Y/N] captured the photograph, she couldn't help but wonder what lay beneath the surface of Jschlatt, the unpredictable and seemingly inscrutable senior.

With the innings ticking away and the game's outcome uncertain, [Y/N] realized that, just maybe, Schlatt was more than the sum of his brashness. And as the sun dipped lower on the horizon, casting a warm, golden hue over the baseball diamond, she couldn't help but think that there might be more to discover about the enigmatic senior.

#chuckle sammy #jschlatt x reader #jschlatt x you #schlatt #schlatt x reader #jschlatt #schlatt x you #chuckle sandwich x reader

[netscapenavigaytor]

My Jet Set Radio New Game Predictions

Here's what i think theyre going to do for the new jet set radio!

They are going to retell the plot of the first JSR and/or Future but with a new coat of paint

There are going to be purchasable DLC graffiti and music packs

the graffiti editor will be even more hostile to human life

Corn is going to die in the first ten minutes of the game

They are introducing a new member of the GGs named "Snorf", and his catchphrase is going to be "It's snorfin' time!"

Pots is finally going to have the fully humanoid body he's always wanted.

yoyo is not going to be in it, they are replacing him with Ecco the Dolphin (This has actually been Confirmed by SEGA!)

You play as a member of Poison Jam this time. you get to chill in da sewers and watch monster movies between levels ^.^

They are going to implement motion controls.

We'll finally get confirmation on which members of the GGs are and aren't furries!

@dailyoyo is going to be working on it :D everyone contgraltulate them for how many sega employees they had to slaughter to get here

Beat will lose both of his arms and get giant horrible frightening mechanical claws as replacements

there will be a sanity meter mechanic!

It will be "Fortnite 2".

There will be a chapter of the game where Beat's headphones go missing and you have to find them! During the entire chapter, there will be no music whatsoever to emphasize Beat's lack of headphones.

there is going to be a 2-hour segment that is just an artsy and inscrutable experimental depiction of yoyo goig into a dissociateive spiral

Hayashi and Onishima will both be in the game, and they're going to be making out sloppy style every time they're onscreen. They won't even function as enemies? They're just a setpiece?

There will be no rival gangs, the entire plot will entail the GGs turning on each other like rabid dogs for ill-defined and petty reasons.

to be innovative and try something different from teh rest of the series, the soundtrack is going to be bad.

Yoyo is going to perish and be consumed by a malevolent warehouse, which will merge with his consciousness.

Bis/Mew/Ryth will have a new name

There's gonna be robot doppelgangers of ALL the ggs! uh oh! theyre all going to die before they get any significant screentime though in order to punish me specifically

There is going to be a minigame where you play as an overworked ordinary Rokkaku Group employee desperately trying to balance the company budget as Gouji continues to pour more money into the Killing Teenagers fund.

^ can someone buy this for me. i cant pay you back

New mechanic where you can escape enemies by killing them, but the character you used to do this will go into a crisis over having had to take a fellow human's life at such a young age and the traumatic effects will lower their stats. Pots is immune to this effect

yoyo will get euthanized

There will be a new area named "The Unforgiving Abyss". Grind down the spine of the thousand mile long leviathan who perished within!

Ice skating instead of rollerksating?

aiai from super monkey ball will be in there

You won't be able to play it without pirating it to be truer to the spirit of the game

The moral of the story will be that the real radio was the jet we set along the way.

um

#jet set radio #jsr #jet set radio future #error 0 #long post #Man. who even gives a shit #misinformation #lies #trait: liar #evil and malice

[yupekosi]

ohhhhhh Sandra-Lynn Faeth my beloved. she's everything. she's a high school dropout. she's a messy bitch. she's a milf. she's divorced. she's in a polyamorous situationship. she went from a single mother of one to the semi-legal guardian of a 9 teenagers, one adult, and 15 cats. she's had multiple affairs. she lives in a haunted house. she tells Fig not to smoke and immediately takes a drag off her cloves. her taste in partners is absolutely inscrutable. she's even bisexual. truly who is doing it like her

#im so glad brennan earnestly presents her as this flawed person doing her best with the bad hand she's been dealt #i feel like next to jawbone 'most emotionally intelligent guy ever' o'shaughnessy #she comes off as more of a hot mess than she is. but like. parents are just people yk #and ​i love that junior year is giving us more of the bad parents because it really drives that home #they're just as prone to impulsive behaviour and bad decisions as their kids #they're just a little more mature about it #anyway. bad parents sidequest when #dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high dimension 20 #fantasy high d20 #fantasy high junior year #fhjy #sandra lynn faeth #sandralynn faeth

[27-royal-teas]

Analyzing the meaning of the song 27 when we line it up with what  we know about the 27 club

So, for context, nobody thought pete would really live past 27. the 27 club is a group of celebrities in the arts that died at age 27 (Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, etc), usually from their own self-imposed destruction. But fall out boy and their history is so inexplicably tied to this number that I absolutely had to write an essay about it. this song is a complete masterpiece in its own right and it's definitely up in my top three fob songs of all time

The song starts like this:

“if home is where the heart is then we’re all just fucked

i cant remember, i cant remember

And i want it so bad id shoot the sunshine into my veins

I cant remember the good old days”

The first line feels almost like begging. Hes wondering where he belongs, because he doesnt feel safe at home, and this song was during the time where the band was fighting a lot, and they were kind of his home as well. so if home is where the heart is and he doesnt feel safe at any of his homes, if he cant belong, then will he ever? Anywhere? A kerrang feature interviewing pete said that this song was him trying desperately to hold the band together, which is expressed with this first opening line (“if home is where the heart is then we’re all just fucked”). Clearly he is clinging on with a single thread, and this was shown when the band went on hiatus not long after.

‘And i want it so bad id shoot the sunshine into my veins’ obviously a drug reference, of being so desperate that youd do anything to get the good feeling back, and here it is linked to ‘i cant remember the good old days’ because it feels almost like a desperate kind of longing. this might relate to the line ‘you were the sunshine of my lifetime’ which repeats multiple times through fob’s eighth studio album, So Much (for) Stardust. In the context that this is referring to a person (anyone, but likely patrick; pete keeps his lyrics vague for a reason) it would be overexposing yourself to something that gives you temporary happiness but in the long run can kill you. hm just something to consider but i know they probably didnt plan that far ahead lyricwise lol

“And it’s kind of funny,

The way we’re wearing anchors on our shirts

When being anchored aboard just feels like a curse”

A lot of folie is actually linked to this sort of nautical theme (what a catch especially) and i think this references ‘they say the captain goes down with the ship’ because anchors are usually on nautical themed shirts or the shirts of sailors, but pete is saying he hates being tied down to the ‘ship’ which can be interpreted as the band maybe possibly. either way hes definitely pointing out the irony of wearing something that symbolizes stability when he is DEFINITELY not stable (who ever looked at pete wentz and thought ‘this man is stable’?) (i digress)

then comes the chorus. i love this chorus so fucking much it is interpretation goldddd

“My mind is a safe, and if i keep it then we all get rich

my body is an orphanage, we take everyone in

doing lines in dust and sweat

on last night’s stage 

just to feel like you” 

ok so obviously petes referring to his mind as the safe because hes the one who makes the lyrics and thus hes the one who earns the band the profit. Its a safe because he is inscrutable. It is also a safe because he only takes out what he wants, and only he has the key. ‘My body is an orphanage, we take everyone in’ COULD refer to how hes kind of promiscuous but more than that fall out boy was known for being the band that didnt really care who their fans were. They were marketed towards teenage girls and for that they were looked down upon. His body could be a metaphor for the band itself, and taking everyone in could mean that they accept the people that other bands dont typically want as fans. 

‘Doing lines in dust and sweat on last night’s stage just to feel like you” this is a reference to the 27 club, and refers to stars doing drugs to be able to function/feel normal and human again. Idk. i just really like this line its so great

“The m-m-milligrams in my head burning tobacco in the wind

Chasing the direction, chasing the direction you went”

Im going to break this verse in half specifically because patrick fucking does NOT ENUNCIATE and also its long (how many times did i think ‘and youre a bottled star’ was ‘and you’re a bathroom stall’ rip)

The milligrams and the tobacco are pretty self explanatory- more drugs. 27 club connections via the drugs. burning tobacco gives way to the vision of trying to cling on to a high with desperation, and he’s chasing it- chasing the direction it went. 

“youre a bottled star, the planets align, youre just like mars

You shine in the sky, you shine in the sky”

pete uses a TON of star and sky metaphors in his writings, this song included. A bottled star would mean a person who is repressing their talent. It could also mean a celebrity who is drowning their problems in liquor. Mars is the roman god of war and often a symbol of masculinity (although im not sure how relevent the second part is). It means raw, unbridled energy. here pete is saying (in his vague, vague writing voice ://) that when the person he is talking about drinks, they lose all control and are pretty much unstoppable. drawing this to the 27 club, a lot of the members died by alcohol or drug abuse, so it makes sense.

The use of star and sky metaphors throughout this song really bring it home- yes, the stars may be bright and pretty, they might shine and sparkle, but at the end of the day they will burn away and self combust. So we have to hold it together if we want to keep our own worlds in once piece. 

“Are all the good times getting gone

they come and go and go and and come and go, oh yeah

ive got a lot of friends who are stars but some are just black holes”

For this verse lets work our way backwards. more space and star metaphors. stars clearly refers to his friends in the industry, but black holes could mean they have an almost deafening energy, or are on their way to becoming a part of the 27 club itself. The good times coming and going represents the sort of panic thats felt in the entertainment industry as a whole; the competition against time itself, for fear that when youre old people wont want to know what you have to say. So often the people who act and sing are so unbearably young, and once they pass thirty two they arent marketable anymore. pete is putting to words the worry and the scramble to get things done- to make a name for yourself- before your time is up. And AGAIN relating to the number 27, its quickly approaching 30, so you better move fast if you want to become famous. 

The rest of the verses from here are just chorus repeats, so let’s talk about how tangled fall out boy is with the number twenty seven. other than the 27 club, what’s so important about it? It’s not a prime number. Theres really nothing out of the ordinary about it. 

Except, there is. 

Everyone celebrated when pete made it past his 27th birthday. In 2011, patrick wrote his Confessions of a Pariah blog post. He and joe were both 27 at the time, and i think that might have been a deciding factor in what inspired pete to reach out. He didn’t want his best friend to give into depression, much less when he was 27. 

The band got together again not long after that. the first track off Save Rock and Roll, My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark, dropped February 5th, 2013. The rest is pretty much history. 

I don’t know. All speculation. But the number 27 is definitely linked with fall out boy, although it’s not relevant right now, and i just think its so damn interesting

#probably no one will read this its not very interesting but im proud and I had fun #fall out boy #fob #meta #27 #folie a deux #bandom #toby’s metas #Toby speaks #lyric analysis

[sporesgalaxy]

oh and the night before last i had a teenage mutant ninja turtles dream where splinter said "we are going to jamaica!" and then brought all the turtles with him into tunnels beneath the sewer that were just full of skeletons. unrealistically huge quantity of skeletons. and of course eventually the skeletons started re-assembling and attacking. they become too much smd the turtles n splinter have to give up on going to jamaica and turn around and go home. there was also a really huge inscrutable washing machine involved somehow

#dream journal

[metamatar]

need your thoughts on csm and particularly part 1 now that you're caught up

I think my immediate reaction on finishing part 1 was like

loved the art, loved the characters def feel like the story has a lot further to go thematically, only really picked up for me with the reveal of the gun devil

I now think CSM's strength in the early arcs is the patience of the construction of Denji as an everyman resisting the reality that the promised capitalist horizon he imagines is a lie.

now that you can tell the horrible direction my thoughts are going in I will continue under the cut, this is so long oh god. cw: canon typical violence, sexual assault etc.

Initially the repeated invocation of wanting to kiss a girl and eat a good meal as ultimate dreams and Denji being presented as an idiot for it felt like a cheap way for readers to get to root for him in a very Naruto sort of way yk? Poor orphan boy wants a basic life. This is disrupted right from the start ofc, starting with the Himeno's assault and Makima's whole deal. I think this construction becomes more valuable in part 2 when with Nayuta there is a very intentional attempt to construct a family, where the horizon is a normality that includes saving up for college. Nayuta's resistance to some of it becomes more interesting than just jealousy or protection imo.

I think the complications of the "workplace" as it functions for Denji in part 1, living quite literally under Aki's supervision with Power invokes the very familiar team as family stuff under threat. The explicit knowledge of how he has exchanged one debtor for another is v effective especially when they take care of Power. You have him and the readers being forced to confront that purpotedly transactional relationships do not exclude the sort for the simple honesty of care we idealise. And that the care will be weaponised anyway. Aki's abortive attempt to opt out is chef's kiss.

The reveal of the use of the gun devil by nation states might functionally be the first moment Denji is forced to acknowledge the complicated incentives of the Bureau. You get to link the exploitation of people to the more obvious rot in liberal institutions. Part 2 then ratchets this up with the discourses on propaganda and mass participation.

I thought the "Killing of Makima" involving the use of the Bureau insiders led by the old man leaned a little too much on their heroism, vibes wise but I also get why narratively that needs to be done. Which is why Kobeni is so important to me lol. The art and creativity on display at the end of Part 1 was like gorging yourself on one of those early pictures of Paradise. The apartment scene could get read as Makima's personal cruelty but I think it's just making explicit the cruel seductions of modernity etc etc. As a violation of Denji esp. it is almost complete, structurally taking the form of kink and the parody of care after. Mwah.

With that, the reconciliation of Denji's past and present when his past in debt bondage is also constructed with the societal complicity about domestic violence becomes delicious. Nayuta is reborn out of a cannibalism not really done in the service of personal survival and def not out of a commitment to self sacrificing heroism.

I'm excited for Part 2, Asa esp lets you get at some of the same neuroses Denji has as a teenager but from a gendered perspective. Her relationship with Yuko is some of the strongest bit of writing about bullying and justice I have read in a while. I've enjoyed the lead up to Fami and War's apocalypse so far, but their motivations are still a little inscrutable and fallback on devils, wyd? despite their sisterhood. I think Fujimoto's focus seems to be the public discourses around devils in this arc, so thats probably why it feels like that but I'm personally always interested in all of it.

#chainsaw man #meta #asks #idt these are like original thoughts but i actually have no idea where to read meta on these lines so this could be much more sharper #if it was in conversation with other people #oh my god i saw a textpost in the csm tag that went debt is exploitative but inevitable in a functioning society

[tobiasdrake]

Ah, the nerd-love arc. The nerd has created a long and complex plan to try and woo the girl, never realizing that the girl's already into him. I don't remember seeing a lot of this in my childhood but I've certainly seen it a few times in the '10s and here in the early '20s.

And whoa-ho-ho is MJ definitely already into Peter. I can't really blame him for not noticing because he's like 15 and she is inscrutable. Peter has the misfortune of being interested in a person who is easily one of the hardest characters to read in the entire MCU. Zendaya's MJ makes being stoic an art form.

But to an outside observer, it's obvious. MJ goes out of her way to interact with Peter all the time, even seeking him out in crowds. She's the one who starts every conversation. She's trying very hard to get him to talk to her and spend time with her.

He's just too full of teenage nervousness to realize what that means. Too busy panicking every time she approaches him out of nowhere to strike up a conversation to pick up on the fact that she's constantly approaching him out of nowhere to strike up conversations.

Peter is trying to figure out the perfect way to pursue MJ, totally unaware that MJ is already pursuing him.

#marvel #marvel cinematic universe #spider-man #spider-man far from home #peter parker #michelle jones #mj

[naranjapetrificada]

I guess this fandom has once again broken another of my AU taboos* for the better. This time it's Childhood Friends, thanks to Fast Car, the new WIP by smallestchurch (idk if they're on tumblr but they are on twitter). It's beautifully written and incisive and moving and delicious but the main thing that has me in a chokehold today is how Ed has been spending his time as of chapter 2.

*taboo is probably too strong of a word for this, it's more like there's stuff that I would never choose on purpose

I'm gonna put a break here because while I feel like there are more than a few of y'all who would find the incredibly specific time and space (and mood) of it all compelling, it is still technically a spoiler for the time being.

So if you've read Chapter 2 or are spoiler agnostic, after 18/19 year old Ed and Stede leave their home town in the titular fast car, Ed takes up blogging. No wait stay with me I promise it's interesting! Because this moment in their lives is during the late 90s, and Ed is accidentally anticipating the shape of the aughts internet through a "Blackbeard" persona that I can't stop thinking about.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, here's part of a comment I left on Chapter 2:

"...I'm also in the exact age cohort to be obsessed by what you're doing with Ed's career here. Maybe I'm wrong, but to me it's giving late 90s/early aughts It Girl meets proto-Vice Magazine (which he would sneer at) with a dash of Club Kid. It's giving the most gossipy parts of Gawker (so like, all of early Gawker). Edward Teach walked so Cat Marnell could fly into outer space. A teenaged Rich Juzwiak got into a club with a fake ID, caught a glimpse of Ed walking to the VIP section, and learned all the wrong lessons from the experience. When Jane Pratt thinks about the people she's interviewed and always wanted to interview, Ed will always be the one that got away."

Looking over that again has me wondering if it will only be interesting to people who were online in the ways I was in the aughts but like, there's something so evocative about Ed's "career" in this chapter, even though it's completely inscrutable to our narrator Stede. The whole pre-influencer internet culture of it and the vibes of party girl blogger Ed and his persona and the way it seems like he's already being eaten alive by it. The way he's making a way out of no way for himself like he did in canon but it still makes him miserable. I just. I just!!

I think part of me is obsessed because of my age but another part of me is just impressed with this as a method of bringing the Blackbeard persona into a modern fic. I cannot wait to see where this is going not just because of the relationship (which goes without saying), but also how that specific kind of online existence will effect someone with Ed's particular issues. It's basically guaranteed to be riveting (and sad, and glamorous but hollow) and will make for incredibly juicy (and uncomfortably relatable) reading later.

#fic recs #fic rec #ofmd fanfic #ofmd fic #fast car #smallestchurch #ofmd au #stede bonnet #edward teach #gentlebeard #blackbonnet #ofmd #our flag means death #what makes Ed happy is...queue

[crash-bump-bring-the-whump]

Whumpril 2024 - Day 24 - No Time To Rest

Miguel is @whumpr's, you know the drill, I love them both so much that I'll combust one day

TWs: Fever, exhaustion, blood, collapse

"I know, I know." Mariano said, breathless as he walked. Miguel whined, low and pained in his ear, arms draped around Mariano's neck. He still didn't know what had happened, but Miguel had woken up feverish and weak and needed help soon.

It was a long hike to the car, though. He'd just come back for the tent later. It was fine. "I think we're almost back to my car."

Miguel wasn't the heaviest load he'd ever carried, but the hike was uphill and neither of them had bothered to eat or drink anything since Mariano had woke up to find Miguel so sickly. He seemed to just barely have the strength to hang on to Mariano.

Breathing evenly, Mariano kept going. His boots were steady and didn't slip, even over the slippery leaves that had fallen after the last rainstorm. His biceps and thighs had started to burn thirty minutes ago. It was fine.

He leaned forward when Miguel's hold started to slip, feeling his calves ache. Mariano was hunched over, every step knocking his thighs against the backpacks he'd secured to his front, and the trail wasn't getting any easier. He'd been going since dawn and had been walking for hours. It had to be almost ten by how the shadows had shifted.

He was never letting Miguel convince him to hike out that far to camp ever again, it didn't matter that they were both ex-military and had done longer and harder. Neither of them were teenagers anymore, and neither had been on a Hell Hike in ages.

Mariano's glasses started to slip down his sweat-slick nose. He couldn't afford to let go of Miguel for long enough to push them back up, not on this hill. They couldn't afford to lose the progress he'd made.

Mariano's boot slipped. With a yelp his knees hit the ground and one arm flew out, fingers clutching at the long, sharp grass to anchor them both. It bit into his fingers, sending sharp sparks up his hand. Mariano's other hand flew to Miguel's wrists, keeping him secured on his back as he came to a stop.

His legs and lower back screamed with the relief of kneeling. The grass was still dewy and the aches that flew through his body were bearable if he just held still. He leaned his head against Miguel's arm, groaning.

But Miguel coughed, wheezing and rattling and weak.

Mariano couldn't rest yet. Miguel was depending on him. Taking a deep breath, Mariano centered himself. This was just a hike. He was just tired. He'd done harder, for longer, with heavier loads. He could handle two bags and Miguel uphill on a warm morning.

With blood dripping down his hand, Mariano hauled himself to his hands and knees, then looped a tired arm up under Miguel's thigh. Carefully, he shifted Miguel until he was draped over both of Mariano's shoulders, one arm and one leg held securely.

Miguel whined, but like this Mariano was able to get to slowly rise to his feet again. With all the weight distributed across his shoulders, the hill didn't seem quite as treacherous. The sun still beat down as it continued to rise, but he'd found his second wind.

He was exhausted, but that didn't matter. Miguel was heavy, but he'd carried him this far. The car was still an hour away, but that was only an hour.

He could do anything for an hour, if it meant Miguel would be okay.

Mariano's soles found gravel. His eyes stayed on the top of the hill. He'd just rest later. He'd have all the time in the world once Miguel was in a hospital bed.

@whump-captain @whumpr @whumperofworlds @lektricwhump @cyberwhumper @bxtterflystxtches @inscrutable-shadow @honeybees-125

#whumpril2024 #whumprilday24 #day 24 #no time to rest #exhaustion #blood #fever #collapse #miguel #mage of violence #I love miguel so fucking mUCH #HE'S SO GOOD